Author Topic: What did the home clans do?  (Read 2950 times)

epion

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What did the home clans do?
« on: 23 April 2018, 10:31:16 »
No, I don't mean the home clans in the time of the Wolf Empire and whatnot. I mean the guys who stayed at home during the invasion? I mean, 4 clans send their best dudes and dudettes to die in glory in the IS against the houses. Fine.
But what did BS, FM, CC, etc. do? Sitting on their asses? I mean, just imagine, clan Wolf went camping with their best and clan Goliath Scorpion thinks "Well, now is a good moment to get those juice production rights for the Dire Wolf.".
Or did the Clan Council declare a period of peace during the invasion?

snewsom2997

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #1 on: 23 April 2018, 10:49:27 »
Same thing they always did, trial for people, supplies, technology and information.

Mendrugo

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #2 on: 23 April 2018, 10:54:21 »
Several Clans wrecked their Toumans in the fierce Trials to become part of the invasion force, and spent the 3050 - 3052 period simply trying to rebuild (or taking advantage of traditional rivals who had weakened themselves in the process and left key assets under-defended). 
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Frogfoot

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #3 on: 23 April 2018, 12:24:58 »
The Ice Hellions threw a hissy fit at not getting through the Invasion's placement Trials and lashed out at just about everyone they could reach, gaining a few enclaves and some resources, but it was still a small campaign.

The Invaders only used 3 Galaxies as their attack force, plus a handful of low grade garrison forces brought in later. That left most of them with a substantial force back home though that was reduced over time. By the 3060s the Invading Clans had moved most of their Touman in the IS and only a couple of Galaxies each in the Homeworlds. These weak forces were turfed out entirely in the 3070s.

There were still some old alliances in play. For example, the Coyotes had close ties with the Wolves and the Goliath Scorpions regarded the Wolves as a kind of senior.

Frabby

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #4 on: 23 April 2018, 12:49:49 »
It wasn't covered in sourcebook-level detail, but the infamous Ice Hellion Tantrum was just the beginning. Sending the touman of six Clans down Exodus Road for Operation REVIVAL (four primary invasion corridors, two backup Clans), plus the Sea Foxes naval assets that they hired out to invading Clans, plus the Snow Ravens who also somehow got themselves involved, presumably via the logistics train, was a major shakeup and did change the balance of power in the homeworlds. They quickly started to fight/trial/quarrel over the spoils that trickled back to the homeworlds.
Then the Wolves and Jade Falcons tore each other up, the Bears moved out wholesale, and thus came the time of the Harvest Trials. Things hadn't quite settled down yet when the reformed Star League came a-knockin', and before long the whole thing came crashing down when the imbalance culminated in the Wars of Reaving.
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TigerShark

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #5 on: 23 April 2018, 13:00:02 »
The Clans spent time cutting each-other down and diminishing their capacity to succeed. That's what they've always done. Even if a Clan had ever reached Terra, they'd have been bombarded with Trials of Refusal, Trials of Possession, blah, blah, blah. And we've seen what happens when one Clan gets ganged up on (Smoke Jaguar). The rest of the Clans either joined in or stood back and watched another Clan be killed off.
Clans have always been paper tigers. Whether one becomes ilClan or not, it won't unite the Clans, let alone the Inner Sphere. It would just be another source of conflict, as it was in the 3050s for the Invading Clans.
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Minchandre

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #6 on: 23 April 2018, 21:17:08 »
plus the Snow Ravens who also somehow got themselves involved, presumably via the logistics train

The Snow Ravens lent several WarShips to the Falcons.

JadedFalcon

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #7 on: 23 April 2018, 21:48:00 »
Same thing they always did, trial for people, supplies, technology and information.
Pretty much this. There's a couple pages in Wars of Reaving that describe the normal state of the homeworlds, where one trial sets off other trials, creating an environment of low-level conflict.

snewsom2997

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #8 on: 24 April 2018, 08:42:37 »
Pretty much this. There's a couple pages in Wars of Reaving that describe the normal state of the homeworlds, where one trial sets off other trials, creating an environment of low-level conflict.


Low level conflict, or professional sports. Canned teams, canned venues, that is more like sports.

Deadborder

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #9 on: 24 April 2018, 18:34:34 »
Some sources (I can't cite which off the to of my head) state that the Homeworld holdings of the Invading Clans were effectively 'off limit' during the invasion. As they were engaged with another enemy (ie, the Inner Sphere) attacking them would be seen as dishonoruable.
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Archangel

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #10 on: 25 April 2018, 10:41:36 »
These brief summations are from the post-Revival Trials to late 3050s:

Blood Spirits - After their failed attempt to join the invasion, they once again isolated themselves until the Burrock Absorption.  Their interference cost them significant military strength and once again they isolated themselves from the other Clans after this perceived betrayal so they could focus on rebuilding.

Burrock - Little canon information is available although it is known that they took advantage of the Fire Mandrills' weakened state to retake territory previously lost to the Mandrills before the Star Adders revealed their illicit dealings with the Dark (or bandit) caste which ultimately led to their absorption by the Star Adders.

Cloud Cobras - Little is stated of what they were up to during the invasion years.  It can be speculated that they largely kept to themselves, defending themselves when necessary and launching occasional attacks against their neighbors (as dictated by the Way?).

Coyote - Due to the predations by other Clans, Clan Coyote's touman was critically understrength by the mid-31st century.  Much of the 3050s was spent reorganizing the touman.  Several clusters as well as four entire Galaxies were disbanded and their remaining warriors reassigned to shore up the remaining units causing considerable internal tensions.

Diamond Shark - Yeah, yeah, they were briefly activated but for most of this time period they were effectively a Homeworld Clan.  After Clans Steel Viper and Nova Cat were activated by ilKhan Ulric Kerensky, they were bitterly disappointed to be given the role of Reserve Clan.  While this did allow them to participate in the Battle of Tukayyid, poor leadership decisions led to almost all their forces being destroyed and were forced out of the Inner Sphere as a result.  After the battle, they focused their efforts on rebuilding their forces and defending their holding against Clans seeking to take advantage of their weakness.  As a byproduct, the Clan started shifting back to their traditional Warden views.  This shift increased as many Crusaders forwarded challenges to the Invading Clans in order to rejoin the invasion.  The slots were usually quietly filled with Wardens.
 
Fire Mandrill - In the wake of heavy losses before and in the Harvest Trials, the Hellions' Fury campaign and Burrock predations, Clan Fire Mandrills' Kindraas largely focused on rebuilding and trying to retain as much territory as possible.

Goliath Scorpions - They focused on increasing their strength by launching numerous strikes to probe neighboring Clans and trying to significantly modernize their aerospace forces.

Hell's Horses - They largely kept themselves out of most of the fighting that engulfed the Clan Homeworlds and focused on rebuilding.

Ice Hellion - To avoid internal fighting, their Clan turned his warrior caste's anger at being knocked out of the Harvest Trials again the other homeworld Clans allowing them to vent their anger while gaining numerous lands and resources but costing them invaluable warriors including their senior Khan.  After the failure of the Invading Clans at Tukayyid, the Hellion Khans tried to rally the remaining Homeworld Clans to pressure the Invading Clans into allowing more Clans to join the invasion.  These efforts were ultimately frustrated with the Harvest Trials.

Snow Ravens - In exchange for invaluable trade concessions (including access to Inner Sphere resources), the Ravens contracted out a significant portion of their WarShip fleet to the Jade Falcons until a dispute led to a breakdown in relations.  Outside of that they remained largely aloof from the infighting among the Homeworld Clans and chose not to join the Hellion's coalition to force the invading Clans to allow more Clans to join the invasion.  Their attempt to humble the Jade Falcons during the Harvest Trials backfired costing them more than two Clusters as well as their saKhan before they could extricate themselves from the mess.

Star Adders - Like several of their fellow Clans, they struck out against their neighbors in order to create a new dominant Clan among the Homeworld Clans.  They stepped up their efforts against the Diamond Sharks after hearing about their losses at Tukayyid.  They would reveal Clan Burrock's illicit dealing with the Dark Caste and would ultimately be rewarded with the right to absorb them.  After the absorption, they would focus on integrating their new members and rebuilding from the losses (largely the result of the Blood Spirits' interference in the Trial) in preparation to taking the fight against their new enemies.
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Minchandre

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #11 on: 25 April 2018, 17:43:35 »
Good, summary, though if I remember right, the Coyotes attacked the Snow Ravens shortly before the trials, and the resulting conflict weakened both clans to the point that they weren't allowed to join the trials (not that the Snow Ravens, at least, could have won anyway)

Liam's Ghost

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #12 on: 25 April 2018, 17:57:09 »
Some sources (I can't cite which off the to of my head) state that the Homeworld holdings of the Invading Clans were effectively 'off limit' during the invasion. As they were engaged with another enemy (ie, the Inner Sphere) attacking them would be seen as dishonoruable.

I recall something similar, but the gist I got was that the homeworld clans could still launch trials against the invaders, they were just encouraged by convention to only do so sparingly and avoid major confrontations. And that gradually broke down as well, leading up to the wars of reaving.
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Archangel

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #13 on: 30 April 2018, 16:09:43 »
Good, summary, though if I remember right, the Coyotes attacked the Snow Ravens shortly before the trials, and the resulting conflict weakened both clans to the point that they weren't allowed to join the trials (not that the Snow Ravens, at least, could have won anyway)

Clan Coyote had been on the downward spiral for some time before that so there was little need to separate that one conflict from the others and thus I felt it was sufficiently included in the first sentence.
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Precentor Scorpio

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Re: What did the home clans do?
« Reply #14 on: 30 April 2018, 16:52:18 »
The home clans probably did the following:  Trials amongst themselves and to an limited degree against the invaders.  The ilKhan was a smoke jaguar after all.  So you don't want to upset them.     Two pray for the arrogant Jade Falcons and other invaders to lose so the other Clans can teach the invaders this is how you win.  Three trade mechs, parts, supplies for resource rights.  (Personally, I like the idea that original Clans agreed to a standard 16 omni-mechs chassis for supply reasons.  So, I imagine that the Invading clans had to fill out their touman with the 16 omni-mechs chassis via trade with their future spoils of war)

 

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