Author Topic: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.  (Read 21240 times)

Vehrec

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If you like having a seahorse painted on your mech and having your maps painted orange, then this is the place for you.  Welcome to the semi-demi-hemi-canon Aurigan Coalition.  We don't much care for the Taurian neighbors, or the Capellans who we share a border with, but prefer to go our own way, and we've prospered for it.

All glory to High Lady Kamea Arano, and to another century of the Aurigan Coalition!
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Natasha Kerensky

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Needs a homegrown tank or militarized industrialmech called the Charioteer...
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Dulahan

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I'm definitely excited about this new little faction.  Really hoping it gets canonized for reals too.  And given Randall gave it a canon pass I'd say we've got a good shot.

Has a lot of the elements I like most, the whole semi-feudal nobility thing especially. 

And better yet, it definitely helps explain why the Fronc Reaches' borders are like they end up being.

VhenRa

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I hope some people have noticed the Maori and Polynesian flavor to the names...

Medron Pryde

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I am certainly interested and intrigued by this new faction.

I like what I have seen so far.

They are my kind of Periphery scum.

;)
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Rim Worlder

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just read up on this and totally love it.   

have been researching the Fronc Reaches for a new campaign setting but might just move over a few jumps I think.
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snakespinner

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Can't wait for more info on the region.
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idea weenie

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With the Argo mothership, you could have it where players take on merc missions, and use the money from those missions to purchase 'tech improvement packages', load them into the 57 kiloton cargo bay, and those are then delivered back to the Coalition, to improve their worlds.

The nice part is those 'tech improvement packages' are still being spread across an entire planet (or several planets), so they don't affect too much.

Different factions can have discounted for certain types of packages, but if you have a rival's tech package on board it will likely be seized (so good luck bringing a Draconis tech package through Davion space, or a Davion tech package through Taurian space).  But the medical upgrade packages purchased in Canopian space get a slight discount.

Prussian Havoc

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #8 on: 14 September 2016, 09:12:46 »
I am very much looking forward to BATTLETECH's Beta this Winter and then Launch next Summer.

It looks like the "Winds of War" are blowing between the Aurigan Coalition and the Taurian Concordat.

Any ideas what we might see in such a conflict?

Will the Concordate rollout the Big Guns (Periphery-relative of course!) or with the Concordat treat any potential conflict with the Coalition as a "Smal War" and work primarily through intermediaries?

Curious as to what the group might think...
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Vehrec

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #9 on: 22 September 2016, 08:57:19 »
It is likely that any conflict between the two will be fairly limited-but by the scale of Periphery war in 3025, it might well be apocalyptic.  Whole COMPANIES of Battlemechs comitted to fights for single planets!  Entire tank BATTALIONS rolling to battle!  And hovering over it all, the pseudo-warship form of the Argo.  From the POV of the Taurians, the entire Coalition is a rebellious province, one that became disobedient just because they pulled out military units.  The Coalition meanwhile, is working on their Haka.  You ever seen a whole mech regiment working on their dance choreography?

The Aurigans are in a tough spot-their natural ally in the region is the Federated Suns, but there is a delicate balancing act to strike there between aid and pissing off their actual shares-a-border-with neighbors.  A little material aid will pass unnoticed, but if they cleave tighter to Hanse Davion, then Mad Max Liao and the Taurians will find the time to stomp on them hard.  So they can't let Hanse use them as a base, even if they become dependent on his technical and material aid to keep their forces competitive with both the largest Periphery State and the smallest of the Successor States.  But the more domestic industry they build up, the more tempting it becomes to just eat them and absorb that industry...it's a tight balancing act.
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Paladin1

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #10 on: 22 September 2016, 09:02:10 »
Seahorses and the color orange?   :))

Great, someone introduced Aquaman to the Battletech universe.


idea weenie

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #11 on: 24 September 2016, 08:58:18 »
Seahorses and the color orange?   :))

Great, someone introduced Aquaman to the Battletech universe.

http://carboncostume.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Aquaman.jpg

Depends on the Aquaman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PRJnLBva3w


As for the balancing act, that would be interesting.  If the players try to just economically build up their home area, have a FedSuns/Capellan/FWL force drop in to say 'hi'.  After the players lose 90% of their forces to the attackers, and lose quite a bit of industry too, they will be a little more focused on military than economy.
« Last Edit: 24 September 2016, 09:00:00 by idea weenie »

Vehrec

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #12 on: 01 October 2016, 08:20:24 »
My theory is a bit more complex than that-basically the Augirians have to expand their threat index in step with their tastiness, but the easiest way to do that is an alliance.  But the most obvious ally of convenience is Hanse Davion, who is, let's admit, going to make the Capellans and Taurians hate you even more.  So letting Hanse build bases and move his RCTs into the Coalition to jump off for their next conquest is not on the table.  Even technology trade and ecconomic treaties are dangerous when the Taurians might wheel their Mechs away from the FedSuns border and clamp down hard on you if they suspect you're making common cause with their enemy.

Allying with the Capellans might seem more appealing at first brush, but they're the senior partner in any arrangment, and you can expect to be treated as a tributary.  Offer up all your Mechs and submit to rule from Sian, it'll just make things simpler for everyone.  The FWL can't find their rear with both their hands tied behind their back, so finding you guys for any treaty negotiations is fraught with peril.

The Canopians might supply you with Partisans until you're up to your eyeballs in AC-2s, but has that ever really helped anyone?  And everyone else is too far away, though Comstar might give you a lot of money if you let them take some scans of the Argo and work out how that thing works...
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wanderer25

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #13 on: 01 October 2016, 22:44:29 »

The Canopians might supply you with Partisans until you're up to your eyeballs in AC-2s, but has that ever really helped anyone?  And everyone else is too far away, though Comstar might give you a lot of money if you let them take some scans of the Argo and work out how that thing works...

You might also get a few Manticores and Sabre ASFs from them too. The later might be your only source of ASF unless
 you can get a few Taurians to sell you stuff under the table. Maybe a few Leaguers too might sell you stuff too. Sfterall arent they a realm of traders?
« Last Edit: 01 October 2016, 22:47:52 by wanderer25 »

Generalripphook

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #14 on: 28 November 2016, 21:05:26 »
I am slightly confused are we talking theoretics, a video game or the interstellar operations?

Dulahan

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #15 on: 01 December 2016, 16:51:34 »
New Backer update!  Complete with Persons of Interest! 

Yep, DEFINITELY loving the Aurigan region now.

glitterboy2098

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #16 on: 01 December 2016, 16:59:56 »
I am slightly confused are we talking theoretics, a video game or the interstellar operations?

the political entity is one from an upcoming videogame. it is a (currently) unofficial addition to the battletech setting, and where much of the upcoming videogame is going to be set.

this thread was started by people who are fans of the concept of the nation that will be in the game, as a place to discuss the information being released as part of the videogame's kickstarter, and as a place to speculate on how the new nation could be integrated into the official BT setting outside the videogame, as either a potential official addition, or just as an addition to their own fan-run campaigns.

Deadborder

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #17 on: 01 December 2016, 23:03:09 »
I did find it interesting that the Taurians are being painted as the bad guys, albiet indirectly. They're supporting the new regime, who are painted pretty clearly as being Not Nice People. Conversely, the Canopians are supporting the exiled legitimate reigime. On the other hand, this is the 3020s, and the ruling Magestrix of the day was rather ambitious when it came to land grabs, so...
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VhenRa

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #18 on: 01 December 2016, 23:38:36 »
And the Taurians of the day had a runaway ministry supporting expansionist colonial setup. It could very easily be said ministry (that got purged in the 3030s) running this plot, not the Taurian government as a whole.

Dulahan

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #19 on: 02 December 2016, 09:42:46 »
I have a strong suspicion the real story is going to be a bit more complicated than we first see.   More on a shade of grey sort of thing than anything.

I also love the touch of how the Arms Master has trained both the Aurigan heiress and the Espinosa heir.  I expect that to go interesting places!


Generalripphook

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #20 on: 02 December 2016, 12:24:55 »
the political entity is one from an upcoming videogame. it is a (currently) unofficial addition to the battletech setting, and where much of the upcoming videogame is going to be set.

this thread was started by people who are fans of the concept of the nation that will be in the game, as a place to discuss the information being released as part of the videogame's kickstarter, and as a place to speculate on how the new nation could be integrated into the official BT setting outside the videogame, as either a potential official addition, or just as an addition to their own fan-run campaigns.

Ah I backed that. Sweetneessss

AlphaMirage

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #21 on: 27 March 2018, 16:38:18 »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxqmd_tE2WI

Looks like we are getting ready for some sweet Canopian backed Noblewoman on Concordat backed Usurper action this Apirl

Can't wait

Vehrec

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #22 on: 18 April 2018, 16:44:07 »
It has come to my attention that there may have been a mistake that called the House Arano cormorant a seahorse.  This is deeply regretted, and I apologize for that and will throw myself at the mercy of the Sword of Restoration herself.

I'll be interested to see how fast people can restore House Arano, so starting from 3025, how many weeks will it take the average play to win this war?  Or an exceptional player, if one can be found?
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Iracundus

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #23 on: 29 April 2018, 03:48:03 »
Now I know the real reason is because the Aurigan Coalition was created for the game and didn't exist before.

Nonetheless, we see that the planets of the Coalition are absent from the official Inner Sphere maps and remain so in later eras. We also know right from the campaign intro that we successfully help Kamea Arano retake the throne (since the intro is really a retrospective). So does that mean Kamea Arano was the wrong leader for the job and the Aurigan Coalition has fallen apart and died out? Was the Directorate really what was needed?

Or is the explanation that some really hefty bribes to Comstar wiped the planets off the official maps?

If the Coalition is gone in later eras, my head canon would be:

Kamea finds out that ruling is a lot harder than just shouting "Freedom!" or other feel good slogans. The problem hinted at before with the Coalition's Council of Founding Houses seems to have been parliamentary deadlock and endless hand wringing debates while they slowly circled the drain. I suspect it was a lot of the Founding Houses having vested interests in different areas, and then being resistant to any attempts at reforming those areas, since it would disadvantage their House. Kamea finds that the Aurigan Restoration has left her with crushing debt and political favors owed to the Magistracy. She finds the Coalition forced to make trade or political concessions as a form of repayment that effectively act as a further brake to any meaningful reform to turn the economy around. She finds that it is easier to overthrow a common "tyrant" enemy, like the Directorate, than it is to choose between her allies that have conflicts and competing interests.

Either she ends up choosing one side, and angering the other enough that planets and Houses secede, or she tries to play the balancing game but ends up failing to please either side, while the situation gradually worsens. Eventually the Aurigan Coalition dies with a whimper rather than a bang, accounting for its low profile disappearance from maps. Maybe House Arano still exists but as the House of a planetary government rather than a multi-system polity.


glitterboy2098

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #24 on: 29 April 2018, 04:09:34 »
There are a lot of periphery worlds that don't appear on the game maps, even those right on the border with the IS. i haven't played the game yet, but the impression i got was that the Coalition is a fairly minor power, and liekly not recognized by most of the successor states or major periphery powers. and i suspect the political disputes that led to the events of the game won't go away quickly even if the ending see's the current situation resolved. a tiny, not very rich unrecognized periphery state frequently racked by internal strife probably isn't going to show up on most maps.

Øystein

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #25 on: 30 April 2018, 02:30:28 »
I wish they would have contacted some real CGL people with knowledge of the maps and such and not just based it off the Sarna stuff.

Like the fact that they are using the 3067 extent of the TC instead of the 3025 ones makes me bang my head against the desk, repeatedly. It's stupid mistake and so easily avoidable.

And also some lore about the worlds - Wyeth's Glory, Cluff's Stand and Liu's Memory are named after CCAF Warrior House leaders who fell in the Jihad/aftermath of Jihad. And was named other things before 3130s.

Liu's Memory = Shiao-zhang Jasmine Liu of House Ma-Tsu Kai
Wyeth's Glory = Shiao-zhang Juan Bautista Wyeth of House Fujita
Cluff's Stand = Shiao-zhang Denby Cluff of House Ijori

(I should know, I named them :P )

Frabby

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #26 on: 30 April 2018, 05:58:55 »
They also managed to misspell two systems on the promotional IS map for the game, which incidentally also anachronistically showed the Greater Valkyrate despite being dated 3025. Not to mention the Argo daisy-chain issue.

Mistakes happen. But I'm also slightly surprised that they didn't make use of the established factchecker process. (I thought they'd be cooperating with CGL a lot more; now it looks as though Randall Bills' role was primarily promotional.)
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Vehrec

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #27 on: 30 April 2018, 22:51:16 »
Now I know the real reason is because the Aurigan Coalition was created for the game and didn't exist before.

Nonetheless, we see that the planets of the Coalition are absent from the official Inner Sphere maps and remain so in later eras. We also know right from the campaign intro that we successfully help Kamea Arano retake the throne (since the intro is really a retrospective). So does that mean Kamea Arano was the wrong leader for the job and the Aurigan Coalition has fallen apart and died out? Was the Directorate really what was needed?

Or is the explanation that some really hefty bribes to Comstar wiped the planets off the official maps?

If the Coalition is gone in later eras, my head canon would be:

Kamea finds out that ruling is a lot harder than just shouting "Freedom!" or other feel good slogans. The problem hinted at before with the Coalition's Council of Founding Houses seems to have been parliamentary deadlock and endless hand wringing debates while they slowly circled the drain. I suspect it was a lot of the Founding Houses having vested interests in different areas, and then being resistant to any attempts at reforming those areas, since it would disadvantage their House. Kamea finds that the Aurigan Restoration has left her with crushing debt and political favors owed to the Magistracy. She finds the Coalition forced to make trade or political concessions as a form of repayment that effectively act as a further brake to any meaningful reform to turn the economy around. She finds that it is easier to overthrow a common "tyrant" enemy, like the Directorate, than it is to choose between her allies that have conflicts and competing interests.

Either she ends up choosing one side, and angering the other enough that planets and Houses secede, or she tries to play the balancing game but ends up failing to please either side, while the situation gradually worsens. Eventually the Aurigan Coalition dies with a whimper rather than a bang, accounting for its low profile disappearance from maps. Maybe House Arano still exists but as the House of a planetary government rather than a multi-system polity.
You know what the real problem here is?  Kamea's broken her nation's military in half and it's wealth has been looted and sold to the Taurians for extra military assets to defend her uncle's regime.  Peace is not the issue.  War is.  War which devours hundreds of millions of C-bills of mechs and dropships.  Taurians can then throw their weight around unimpeded, save for her pet mercenaries, who can't be everywhere.  And if her uncle took out loans from Taurian banks, guess who has to repay them now?  Defaulting on them sounds like a bad idea-it'll just get more mercenaries hired to take that money from her.  Now put the money in the Firestarter's sack please...all the money you could have invested into schools and diverse industry and rebuilding your military to resist being kicked around like Luxemburg whenever Germany wants to invade France.
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Iracundus

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Re: Canopians to the left of me, Taurians to the right-Here we are.
« Reply #28 on: 30 April 2018, 23:46:08 »
The holders of the debt of the losing side in a civil war normally has to soak the loss as the bonds get voided.  There is a point where the debt becomes effectively unrecoverable and is written off rather than pour even more money trying to recover it.  The backers of the Directorate would be at that point. 

The Magistracy as the bankers behind the victor are the ones that would be benefiting.  Kamea could be so in hock to them that she is effectively politically paralyzed as she has little to nothing left over after servicing the debt.  The inability to produce results would eventually render her fine sounding rhetoric and slogans empty and impotent.

Vehrec

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The holders of the debt of the losing side in a civil war normally has to soak the loss as the bonds get voided.  There is a point where the debt becomes effectively unrecoverable and is written off rather than pour even more money trying to recover it.  The backers of the Directorate would be at that point. 

The Magistracy as the bankers behind the victor are the ones that would be benefiting.  Kamea could be so in hock to them that she is effectively politically paralyzed as she has little to nothing left over after servicing the debt.  The inability to produce results would eventually render her fine sounding rhetoric and slogans empty and impotent.
There's been more than one third-world revolution left holding the bag of the previous dictator's spending spree, so I'm gonna have to give you a Hard Doubt on that one.  Look, there's a clear successor government right there to give the bill to-especially if the loans were actual bank loans, not bonds issued by the Directorate.  And even if you do cancel those bonds, then your bond rating goes into the hole and you're paying 8-9% on your new loans.

Hell, let's turn this proposition over-did the Directorate's takeover invalidate all the debts of House Amano and the parliamentary government?  Maybe that's actually good for Kamea-with lots of dead nobles all over the place she can sell off their assets to new nobles and use the money for her social programs at long last, without the burden of her house's debt from mercenary expeditions and military campaigns hanging over her.
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