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.

[Colt Ward]

Or its a fad/style thing?  For instance, I do not know too many people who would want a mid-80s Mustang but would love the previous body-style in the 70s . . . so 3000 era Clanners were fine with LAMs, but snobbery 50 years later has them wrecking the machines.

[Ursus Maior]

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

Plus: They have to spy on degenerate IS surats, who defiled the Star League that was.

[RifleMech]

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.

Or its a fad/style thing?  For instance, I do not know too many people who would want a mid-80s Mustang but would love the previous body-style in the 70s . . . so 3000 era Clanners were fine with LAMs, but snobbery 50 years later has them wrecking the machines.

The lack of information concerning the Clans and LAMs has always bugged me.  If the Clans did not use LAMs prior to 3000 who trained the Wolf and Goliath Scorpion LAM Pilots that were assigned to Wolf's Dragoons?  Who trained the techs to maintain them? They would have needed to be trained before being assigned to the Dragoons so they could train with their unit. There wouldn't have been enough time for them to undergo LAM training and then train with their units. To me that means LAMs were in use in at least two Clans as of 3005.

I'm not saying all Clans used LAMs. I'm not saying that every Clan even had LAMs and I'm not even saying that those that did had them in every galaxy. But I do believe that LAMs were in use with some Clans until at least 3005. So where did they go? Lost in trials? A change in command with a change in attitude towards LAMs? Some other reason? A combination of reasons?

As to the Nova Cat's razing the LAM factory, at some point the Clans stopped using LAMs so they wouldn't be prepared to face them. Since LAMs can be frustrating to their opponents, maybe the Nova Cat's got so frustrated by LAM tactics and took their frustration out on the factory? Or maybe they just hated the blurring of Mech and Aerospace rules that LAMs create?

I don't know. I'd love to know. Maybe someday we will. Of course I'd love to see the Jade Falcon LAMs and I'd love to know why the Hell's Horses aren't using them. I would have thought they'd fit in with their Quad/Vees.

[Colt Ward]

WELL . . . if they were viewed negatively b/c being a hybrid it makes sense they were in the Caches- "One day we might need this."  The Scorpions dusted off all their archived material from the Temple, which may have included information on the LAMs.  So their practices could have all been from live fire training with the Scorpions via 'learn as we go' which makes you wonder how many of them died in that process.  The dying is not something that would have deterred the Clans from doing it anyway.

If you did have Clans that used them . . . perhaps the Mongoose?  Thus giving the LAMs a bit of a taint?  Otherwise I see the three big aero Clans doing it- Mongoose, Snow Raven and Cloud Cobra.  I think you can also safely say none of the founders were LAM pilots, so its not like they would have been represented that way.

[dgorsman]

I can see the first LAM pilots issuing trials:
"You go first."
"No, YOU go first."

Maybe the records included training protocols and schematics for appropriate simulators as well.

[Warship]

The Scorpions probably kept several active just out of their love for all things Star League.  That said, their LAM's were probably not included in their Touman once the Pilot genotype created a definite split between Mechwarriors and Pilots.  Then the bias grew over the years into outright hostility towards them. That is, of course, unless darling Nikky had some sort of bias against them earlier.  Either way, the Scorpions would keeping them, maybe even trading for those of other Clans.  Personally, I always saw LAM's as a tool for Special Forces, like Death Commandos, lacking a Clan equivalent.

[Wrangler]

Thing is that LAM were unseen which was part of the problem and was way too strongly channelling Macross vibe.  thus it died.  I wish it wasn't the case.

Canon wise, Clans don't work together well except for the Hell's Horses Tankwarriors etc.  Had they gotten over their problem, perhaps LAMs would had chance.

Caches are problemly very few left by time Home World's problem dust had finally settled.

I guess it's a Cache 22.

[RifleMech]

WELL . . . if they were viewed negatively b/c being a hybrid it makes sense they were in the Caches- "One day we might need this."  The Scorpions dusted off all their archived material from the Temple, which may have included information on the LAMs.  So their practices could have all been from live fire training with the Scorpions via 'learn as we go' which makes you wonder how many of them died in that process.  The dying is not something that would have deterred the Clans from doing it anyway.

If you did have Clans that used them . . . perhaps the Mongoose?  Thus giving the LAMs a bit of a taint?  Otherwise I see the three big aero Clans doing it- Mongoose, Snow Raven and Cloud Cobra.  I think you can also safely say none of the founders were LAM pilots, so its not like they would have been represented that way.

Their being a hybrid would definitely limit their use but I don't think it would have stopped it entirely. At least not initially, and not with all clans. The Scorpions with their love of the SL would have kept using them. I can see the Aero Clans using them and the Hell's Horses along with the Wolves. I can also see some clans not using them at all. I think it'd depend on how "traditional" the clan is. I also think it'd depend on how many LAMs the clan has. I can see some clans having more than others.

I can't see trainees being thrown into live fire training like that. I don't think any would have survived the training and the Dragoons were the equal to other Clan frontline units. Plus it'd be very wasteful. The Clans do use live fire training but they at least train their warriors to pilot their machines first. That would take time. A good example that "on the job training" didn't happen is Kurt Brunner. He was already a Goliath Scorpion Mechwarrior when the Dragoons were formed and tested into them. Another would be unless they're Zombies or Ghosts, the dead don't fight.

The Scorpions probably kept several active just out of their love for all things Star League.  That said, their LAM's were probably not included in their Touman once the Pilot genotype created a definite split between Mechwarriors and Pilots.  Then the bias grew over the years into outright hostility towards them. That is, of course, unless darling Nikky had some sort of bias against them earlier.  Either way, the Scorpions would keeping them, maybe even trading for those of other Clans.  Personally, I always saw LAM's as a tool for Special Forces, like Death Commandos, lacking a Clan equivalent.

Wasn't the Heartvenom Cluster, Clan Goliath Scorpion's special forces unit? They also fit with the Clan's use of precision over brute force. I think bias varied among the clans, similar to the use of vehicles, foot infantry, and free births. I also think bias changed after LAMs were no longer in use, or too expensive to maintain. Once they're use is out of active memory their value gets distorted.

Thing is that LAM were unseen which was part of the problem and was way too strongly channelling Macross vibe.  thus it died.  I wish it wasn't the case.

Canon wise, Clans don't work together well except for the Hell's Horses Tankwarriors etc.  Had they gotten over their problem, perhaps LAMs would had chance.

Caches are problemly very few left by time Home World's problem dust had finally settled.

I guess it's a Cache 22.

Their being Unseen has been a big problem. I wish it wasn't the case too.

Clan members not working well together is why the Jade Falcon LAM program died. Of course they're also pretty strict about maintaining roles, so their LAMs had to have separate aerospace and mech pilots. I would have thought the Falcons would have traded them to the Horses to gain something out of the research. Then again maybe they did and they led to the QuadVees?

That I can see being why the Clans stopped using LAMs. They would have been maintained solely on spare parts, salvage, and expensive fabrication. I can see even the Scorpion's leaders saying no more, and replacing them with Fire Moths and other really fast mechs.

Lol

[Red Pins]

Well - hopefully the caches are emptied and the WarShip caches exhausted of anything economical to refurbish.

Now - what did the Scientists have to hide when the rebellion turned against them?  Oh, I have a list. I've got a little list...

[RifleMech]

There's always a chance of finding a lost cache or finding out an existing cache is bigger than thought do to reasons. For the moment though, I believe all the old equipment has been taken out and new stockpiles are replacing them.


I'd like a list.

[Red Pins]

...Have you by chance read Maingunnery's XTRO: The Society project?  Awe inspiring.  Then, of course I have the New Clans project I'll never finish.

Then, gasping for breath and limping like a 3-legged horse is CGL.  Should find out how big a time jump it will be and the fate of the Clans, hmm...  '22-23, is my guess.

[RifleMech]

Yeah. It's a great XTRO!

[NutritiousSlop]

The caches are probably pretty tapped out of familiar Star League/Succession War machines.  However, the Clan economy depends on the production of war material- the Scientist and Technician castes generally only works toward the production of new weapons, and the Labor caste finds itself mostly building those weapons.  In order to keep those non-warriors busy, Clan production lines have to keep running.  The first- and second-gen Omnis are probably filling those caches right now. 

[Colt Ward]

The first- and second-gen Omnis are probably filling those caches right now.

Yup, Lupus/Hellfire fluff backs that up.

[Sjhernan3060]

When things were cached did the clans go through the trouble of repairing any damage any removing old paint jobs?

I imagine that would depend on the unit but would they strip the paint of a warship???

[NutritiousSlop]

When things were cached did the clans go through the trouble of repairing any damage any removing old paint jobs?

I imagine that would depend on the unit but would they strip the paint of a warship???

I'd guess no.  Or that they'd do something similar to what we do with aircraft boneyards today. 

https://www.airplaneboneyards.com/davis-monthan-afb-amarg-airplane-boneyard.htm

Apparently, they cover the airplanes in some sort of vinyl-epoxy-ish sealant.  I'd imagine the Clans do just about the same with ground vehicles, 'Mechs, and sub-DropShip aerospace.  I'd also imagine that naval caches get a similar treatment to prevent against micrometeorite impacts. 

[Sjhernan3060]

While doing a re read of the WOR source book I was surprised to see that the stone lions were dusting off a small horses naval cache. This brought a few things to mind:

1) considering that the horses leaving of the HW was planned did they just not need these ships?

      Why not trade them before leaving? Did they choose not to utilize them to keep their fleet movements a secret?

2) considering how much larger the nova cats navy was and how abrupt their leaving was I have to think they had warships in mothballs which got left behind.

     If so what do you suppose they might be?

[glitterboy2098]

i'd guess that the horses didn't touch the naval cache because reactivating those ships would be far too obvious that something was up. it would attract attention, since it would threaten the balance of naval power, and that would run the risk of other clans finding out the plans to relocate.

[Deadborder]

It's also possible that given their schedule, the Horses didn't have the time and/or resources to reactivate the ships in the cache. They've been a resource-poor Clan for much of their existence, and trying to reactivate a bunch of long-dormant ships would require considerable time and effort.

[Sjhernan3060]

It's also possible that given their schedule, the Horses didn't have the time and/or resources to reactivate the ships in the cache. They've been a resource-poor Clan for much of their existence, and trying to reactivate a bunch of long-dormant ships would require considerable time and effort.

Agreed and I would think the same would be true for the nova cats

[Stormlion1]

Horses I think were half thinking that there leaving the Homewords was temporary and half not thinking of there warship fleet at all.

[Sjhernan3060]

For each clan which had cached warships of their own were they hidden? Who would have had that info if yes?

If no were they all registered in some clan wide database?

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

The senior Khan, the Clan's loremaster, maybe some other extremely high ranking members. It's not the sort of thing you advertise.

[Colt Ward]

The senior Khan, the Clan's loremaster, maybe some other extremely high ranking members. It's not the sort of thing you advertise.

Actually in the Clans, military dispositions were not hidden until Revival . . . so before that, yeah the star charts are going to show everything.  Besides, most worlds being shared, its sort of hard to hide something like that in a system.

[Hawkeye Jim]

In terms of finding LAM pilots. is it possible that a warrior who failed to make it as a MechWarrior but requalified as an aerowarrior  would fit? Or is that not possible to do?

[Jellico]

Yup, Lupus/Hellfire fluff backs that up.

One of the Aiden Pryde books had Hellbringers at 2nd line level 😉 

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

In terms of finding LAM pilots. is it possible that a warrior who failed to make it as a MechWarrior but requalified as an aerowarrior  would fit? Or is that not possible to do?

Theoretically possible but extremely rare.

[NutritiousSlop]

Theoretically possible but extremely rare.

I didn't think phenotypes were allowed to test into different fields, save for maybe unarmored infantry. 

[Jaim Magnus]

I didn't think phenotypes were allowed to test into different fields, save for maybe unarmored infantry.

It happens, but very rarely.

[Colt Ward]

I didn't think phenotypes were allowed to test into different fields, save for maybe unarmored infantry.

Standard practice with the Bears, its how a mechwarrior ended up as a Aerospace pilot after failing his mech Trial of Position . . . or a failed mechwarrior ended up a tanker with a bloodname.  I also want to say somewhere I read about Ravens putting Aero phenotypes into VTOLs, but it maybe they were old pilots or test downs.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I didn't think phenotypes were allowed to test into different fields, save for maybe unarmored infantry.

Depends on the Clan.  The Bears do it regularly and I want to say that the Cloud Cobras do it with some of their warriors but I can't remember for certain.

But even in Clans where it is allowed, you wouldn't have a very high population of warriors who'd been trained as both mechwarriors and ASF pilots.

[Colt Ward]

Cobras have a reserve list of ASF pilots . . . but JUST pilots IIRC . . . do they pilot SC, DS and VTOLs if they are on that list?

[Gaiiten]

Ihmo yes.
And they might pilot Protomechs.

[Colt Ward]

Not what I meant . . . as I understand it from some of the Raven pilot training bits . . . at some point in sibko training they will split off Aero phenotypes who are at the bottom of the class for VTOL piloting (probably the 1st cut), then DS/SC/WS, and the cream of each sibko become ASF pilots.  Does make you wonder how a DS or WS trained pilot passes their Trial of Position . . .

But the Cobras have that list . . . they are reserve ASF pilots for each cluster IIRC.  Are they attached, sitting around in the ready rooms & waiting while getting in hours in simulators and the occasional stick time- and that is it- or are they assigned to the cluster in the reserve slot but pilot a Donar while waiting for a open ASF cockpit?  Nevermind the two craft flight very differently . . .

I would NOT expect them to pilot Protos, that is VERY different and requires different training & adjustment.  Did the Cobras raid the bottom third of their reserve lists to push everyone else down a status run to get Proto pilots?  Very possible IMO.

[Stormlion1]

Proto pilots originally came from failed Aerospace cadets. Until the rise of a dedicated protomech phenotype they probably continued to recruit the pilots that way.

[Mohammed As`Zaman Bey]

  Never. SL Military caches are everywhere, and range from tiny, squad-level chests of junk to hollowed-out mountains, filled with preserved battlemechs. There are so many, the SL forgot most of them before the Exodus and the Clans had records of the many that had to be left behind. Universe-wise, they will always be around, like Stingers...

[RifleMech]

There could always been lost caches but as far as the Clans know, they're all used up.


It'd make for a fun campaign though.  :) Clan finds info about a lost cache and has to race other clans to get to it. And then fight them off the keep it.

[Mohammed As`Zaman Bey]

There could always been lost caches but as far as the Clans know, they're all used up.


It'd make for a fun campaign though.  :) Clan finds info about a lost cache and has to race other clans to get to it. And then fight them off the keep it.

  That's been beaten to death in the IS. I even ran a campaign where one of the players started with information of a SL cache under a shopping mall, where the party had a battle with a Maskirova team during a Mardi Gras celebration.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Please tell me that the PCs and the Mask agents wound up fighting using strings of plastic beads as weapons at least once.

[RifleMech]

Hope they used Combat Cold Cuts and serving trays in the food court and Frisbee and yo-yos in the toy area.



And done to death in the IS or not it could still happen there or in Clan space. Any where really. And the cache doesn't have to be former SLDF either. It could be RWR or Wolverine.

[Stormlion1]

Wolverines probably had no caches that weren't already opened and well known to build up after the Pentagon campaign.

[Wrangler]

I would thought they emptied them out and took off what they could transport from my impression of the novel.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Both the number of caches and their total inventory is entirely a plot device.  There could always be one or three that got overlooked if it's needed for story purposes.