Favorite SLDF Division? (1st Star League)

[Tai Dai Cultist]

I take it the info for this unit is in FM:SLDF? Must get that book!

If you're a Terran or SL fan, that book should be at the TOP of your shopping list. Toilet paper can wait! O0

Well, near the top.  FASA's original Star League SB obviously takes precedence ;)

[Weirdo]

Honestly? Not really. It makes a great target of opportunity, but FM: SLDF has far more useful info in there for me.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Honestly? Not really. It makes a great target of opportunity, but FM: SLDF has far more useful info in there for me.

Well, they do have different focus.  The original House Atlas series is about the entire faction.  The FM series is only about the respective Army.  Apples and oranges, depends on what you want information about as to which is the better book.

But if you want general information about Terra and the Star League, I stand by my statement.  If you want information about the SLDF, well I'd say get both.

[Drewbacca]

I have the original SL house book as a PDF which I subsequently printed out. I have Liberation of Terra II, and now ER: 2750 which I am NOT happy with so far. I am hitting up the family for copies of FM:SLDF and LOT I, what with the holidays around. Were I to get those two, especially after scoring a pair of Mackies from my brothers-in-law for my birthday last month, I would be a VERY happy Terran.

[Paladin1]

You'll not be displeased if you get LOT1 or FM:SLDF.  I've got both and they're awe inspiring.

[Feenix74]

I just picked up FM: SLDF, LoT I and Lot II in Battleshop's Black Friday sale. Got some light reading for the holidays  :)

[Nerroth]

My personal favourite of the forces introduced in the "year of the Star League" is/was the Star League Expeditionary Brigade. And I especially liked how their story was picked up on in the Chainelane Isles section of ISP3.

[Molossian Dog IIC]

Favourite SLDF division?

The dead one!

(Yes, that was low. Low and stupid. It still felt good.)

[Paladin1]

Favourite SLDF division?

The dead one!

(Yes, that was low. Low and stupid. It still felt good.)

Wait, there were some decent SLDF divisions and Regiments.  They went over to the Periphery Rebel's camp during the Amaris War, rather than beat up on a bunch of farmers again.

[Brian Mattern-Davion]

1st Royal Mechanized and the 59th Jump. 1st Infantry, 82nd and 101st Jump also get honorable mentions.

[Lysenko]

Um, 15th Dracon Regiment, LX Corps. :)

[Rainbow 6]

Um, 15th Dracon Regiment, LX Corps. :)

Did we ever find out what their official designation was? I've always assumed they were a Battle or Heavy Assault Regiment.

Edit - Ok so looked at the SLDF Field Manual and they are called the 15th Dracon in there, but that is not an official SLDF designation, what gives?

[Lysenko]

Nope. It's a strangely silent piece of info. I think we know more about the fighting Uruk-Hai than we do the 15th! (Although Brush Wars helps some.)

I'm with you on Battle or Heavy Assault since they Prefer the Flashman and Crockett designs. That seems like a deep-rooted long-term pref.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Edit - Ok so looked at the SLDF Field Manual and they are called the 15th Dracon in there, but that is not an official SLDF designation, what gives?

The 15th Dracon isn't the only independent regiment with a nonstandard name, but the other units with nonstandard nomenclature have pretty guessable histories/composition (1st French Regiment, etc)

My assumption is the 15th Dracon's name was grandfathered into the original Star League SB because that regiment's fluff was decided by the early powers-that-be to be a SLDF descendant unit long before any concrete details about the SLDF were finalized. 

One can only guess as to what the Dracon title means, in universe.  Perhaps it was a Zouave-like faddish unit and by the 28th century was as out of fashion to the Star League as it is incomprehensible to us in the 21st.

[Lysenko]

Well, the most interesting diambiguation on Wiki for "Drakon" is:

DRAKON (Russian: ДРАКОН, "dragon" – backronym for Дружелюбный Русский Алгоритмический язык, Который Обеспечивает Наглядность, "friendly Russian algorithmic language that guarantees clarity") is an algorithmic visual programming language developed for the Buran space project.

Maybe they have something to do with Tikonov. :D

[Paladin1]

Considering that they signed on with the CCAF, I'd say that's a safe bet.

[sillybrit]

My assumption was the 15th Dracon was a dragoon regiment. Dracon/draco is Latin for dragon (and serpent), with dragon also the root for dragoon due to the original armament for the mounted troops. My assumption was somebody way back when just kind of mushed those facts together because they liked the sound of the word and wanted to call a regiment by that name.

[Josva Valdreki]

My assumption was the 15th Dracon was a dragoon regiment. Dracon/draco is Latin for dragon (and serpent), with dragon also the root for dragoon due to the original armament for the mounted troops. My assumption was somebody way back when just kind of mushed those facts together because they liked the sound of the word and wanted to call a regiment by that name.

Might their name be related to the later Drakøn regiments of Rasalhague?

[cavalier1645]

Really Torn
Like the 151 Royal for not running away with Kerensky, but hate that they shacked up with those Techno-werdios of Comstar.

[Alan Grant]

Well in their defense. At the time that the Exodus was made, I doubt Jerome Blake's followers looked like techno-weirdos.

I can sympathize with those SLDF soldiers. They were serving the last vestige of the dead Star League, securing Terra for some yet unknown brighter future (and making sure it didn't end up in the hands of a Great House lord, those folks who (arguably) let the Star League die as a result of their own naked ambition), and obeying Kerensky's orders in the case of some units that stayed behind (not sure if the 151st Royal falls into that category).

Even when the techno-weirdo side did start to become apparent, what was the alternative? The next several years were dominated by the holocaust that was the first two Succession Wars, with nukes flying and planets dying, and the old Terran Hegemony worlds being gobbled up or destroyed all around them. Leaving to join one of the Great Houses probably wasn't that appetizing to many. Standing guard on Terra and preventing the Great Houses from getting their greedy hands on it probably seemed like a high calling at the time.

[cavalier1645]

Well in their defense. At the time that the Exodus was made, I doubt Jerome Blake's followers looked like techno-weirdos.

I can sympathize with those SLDF soldiers. They were serving the last vestige of the dead Star League, securing Terra for some yet unknown brighter future (and making sure it didn't end up in the hands of a Great House lord, those folks who (arguably) let the Star League die as a result of their own naked ambition), and obeying Kerensky's orders in the case of some units that stayed behind (not sure if the 151st Royal falls into that category).

Even when the techno-weirdo side did start to become apparent, what was the alternative? The next several years were dominated by the holocaust that was the first two Succession Wars, with nukes flying and planets dying, and the old Terran Hegemony worlds being gobbled up or destroyed all around them. Leaving to join one of the Great Houses probably wasn't that appetizing to many. Standing guard on Terra and preventing the Great Houses from getting their greedy hands on it probably seemed like a high calling at the time.

True Comstar was no so bad till Toymata got his hands on it.

[Raj Whitehall]

I'm going to jump in late and support the 149th Battlemech Division (Tenth Army).  The Erwin Rommel Division

Unconventional in that it only has one Battlemech Brigade, but has two brigades of armour and mechanised infantry.  So certainly not a standard Mech Division.

At a regimental level, I cannot go past the 302nd Hussars.  Winners of the Best Regiment at the 2680 and 2724 Martial Olympiads, thus putting those soft as custard Royal Commands in their place :-)

[Lysenko]

I'm going to jump in late and support the 149th Battlemech Division (Tenth Army).  The Erwin Rommel Division

Thanks for the heads-up. that sounds like a unit for me to use in SL-era play.

[Alan Grant]

It is one of the few Divisions in the SLDF where Armor gets a big nod and a prominent place at a table. I think if I was going to portray a tanker in the SL era, its probably where I'd want to be.

[Drewbacca]

Yep, it's he 138th Mechanized Infantry Division.

We all play up at Games Plus in Mt. Prospect. Catalyst demo agent GreyWolfActual had some sweet Division patches made up with the Chicago flag replacing the standard starts with Cameron Stars. It looks pretty sweet. I still need to get it stitched on my jacket, though.

I meant to ask a while ago... any of those patches left? ::)

[snakespinner]

The 15th Dracon was originally a greek regiment.
Based on the Dracon's the Byzantines used as standards.
I am trying to find which source book it was in.

[Hellraiser]

The 15th Dracon isn't the only odd named unit.

There is their sister unit in the CapCon the 4th Tau Ceti Rangers too.

Also the Northwind Highlanders.

I have a theory that while the main line SLDF regiments followed the 7 common names, that the Terran Hegemony planetary guard regiments did not follow those names.

It might explain where things like Rangers, Dracon, or Highlanders come from.

[Weirdo]

The Highlanders were never an SLDF unit. They've always been a mercenary force(even if their Succession Wars service to House Liao was less de facto than some other centuries). They held close cordial ties to the League, especially the Black Watch, but they were never a formal part of it. They did not become part of any nation's military until they joined the RAF.

[Hellraiser]

Ah, For some reason I thought they were one of the SLDF Mech Divisions.

[Major Headcase]

Whichever  one's didn't abandon  the inner sphere to 3 centuries of chaos alongside  that traitor, Kerensky.... 😬