Must admit more than a little tempted to get BattleCorps again just to read those stories
Brigands?????? Thats a 3067 era Mech, thats big typo.
You also swapped Helmer for Hazen.
To be one's supporter doesn't mean to be one's brainless and spineless lackey. Here, Dana's just presented herself as someone who could tell him that he's full of it in a way Nicholas could take. That's not a bad person to have around.
On one hand, what would you have her do? Bend heaven and earth to get to Eden and abandon her Coyotes on Babylon? Or take her Coyotes with her and make them complicit as well, in addition to making Babylon more of a mess than it already was?
I don't think that's going to fly anywhere. See how far the Novacats get when acting on their visions. The only thing that Dana could've done was perhaps beat the Smoke Jaguars. Even then, that might not be useful.
Thank you for all of this. Your analysis of the stories and the history is very well done. Again thanks.
Nelson Geist story (http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Ghost_of_Christmas_Present)
The rich backstory is the only reason I still buy Battletech. I personally have collected it for over 20 years. Books and magazines not minis. Jihad has hit me pretty hard as all the things I grew to love have been either beat like a seal or destroyed, but I am moving thru my levels of grief and coming to terms with the epic story that the Jihad is. Your reviews are helping me rekindle that fire and get me back into the history. I appreciate your work, thanks.
Just found this thread and I like it. How far are you planning to go with this? 3025?
Reading your breakdown of "Fall of Glory" really makes me wish that Randall had finished that trilogy; I doubt he ever will, now.
Just another reason the Widowmakers should have been applauded for capping Nicholas
Maybe Nicholas figured out a way to make sure a lot of undesirables were put into the genetic legacies of the Widowmakers and the Wolverines? He already seems to be playing the long game with just about everyone so doing to his own Clan touman makes some sense imo.
Actually, I thought the name of their Potemkin, Egg Sac was kind of apt, given that their totem is a spider.
True enough. It just doesn't conjure an air of majesty, history, or menace for me, like most BattleTech ship names aspire to do.
True enough. It just doesn't conjure an air of majesty, history, or menace for me, like most BattleTech ship names aspire to do.Well, Potemkins are Corn Cob Cruisers. They've never really gotten respect. My pet theory about the Egg Sac is that she became the Full Moon. I leave that to you to judge if that's an upgrade in her name stature or not.
On that note, I wonder what the Fidelis were trying to evoke with the naming of their own WarShip...
It was in the Battlespace rulesbox.I used to have that, i wish i knew where heck it went to. I guess chances of it being still canon are 50/50 since its so old.
Interestingly, no one named Carlos can be found in the Clan Wolf touman listed in H:OK.
Random comment. Widowmakers....they seem despite being clan similar in behavior to mercenary Widowmakers that sacked Outreach during the Jihad.
Important Lesson: Pirate Point use dues not engender trust, and you are unlikely to get the benefit of the doubt.
EDIT: To stay on topic - Would moving the date of the novel forward 4 or 5 years help? Or is the setting requiring just post Klondike-ism?
I think Randall had planned for Andery's character to undergo an arc of personal growth in the second and third ClanGrunder novels, and that his spinelessness in the first novel was done to provide contrast to later developments (which, alas, we haven't gotten to read).I guess thats how its going be, plot books aren't great source of solid canon specially when they don't say if they are or not. Just Canon Rumor.
I looked through the purported "Wolverine Diary" and found that I just couldn't reconcile it with the chronology as laid out in "Betrayal of Ideals." The diary implies that the Wolverines fought through Clan space for months before successfully breaking contact with only a small remnant of their people. This doesn't match the chronicle of "Betrayal of Ideals" at all. However, there are elements in the diary that make me believe it's been written by someone with some concrete knowledge of the Wolverine saga, but who is trying to cover up key details and spread disinformation. They mention the Zughoffer Weir at one point in the diary. My guess is that the Zughoffer Weir (one of the few ships that escaped the final battle in the Barbados system) crew is the Wolverine group that encountered ComStar and was incorporated into its inner cabal, while McEvedy's/Ebon's group is the one that circled around and settled in the vicinity of the Magistracy of Canopus. The missing third picket fleet would be a good candidate to have slipped off to become the Umayyads in Nueva Castille.
The chronology of the diary just doesn't match up with Betrayal of Ideals. Since it appeared in one of the "rumor" sourcebooks, I think it's about as accurate as the tales of Illuminati high lords the Tanite worlds, Manei Domini bases in hyperspace, and the genecaste, with perhaps a few crumbs of truth sprinkled within.
The one thing that bothers me it that it would be friggin' stupid to keep the names - Ebon Magistrate, McEvedy's Folly.
Even when you take into account that nobody in the Inner Sphere was likely to recognize these names, and that the Magistracy was a bandit kingdom in the outback (or so the IS said), the first thing to do for a prosecuted minority would be to cover up their identity, or at least not push it into everybody's face like this and risk information getting out. It's almost as if they dared the universe to find them.
What was the name of that Succession Wars-era merc group that paused in mid-battle on the Liao/Davion front, met with someone off a DropShip, and then packed up and vanished?
Clinton's Cutthroats. IIRC they get mentioned in some of the Five rumors.
Anyone else find it ironic that the man who manipulated events for years to create the Clans and stop revolts is now being manipulated by one of his very own followers? ^-^
I wonder if the Blake Documents were based on Mr. Pardoe's work. Its hard form me since i've never got chance to read Betrayal of Ideals. Are there signs that serialized novel's moments reflect into the Blake Document's section on the Wolverines?
And if Nicholas is setting this up, then having agents provocateur spreading rumors or writing graffiti would definitely fit in.
Just because an abundant amount of water is somewhere out there doesn't mean it is easily obtained and used. In fact, since space is big and empty, I don't see how a fleet of (largely) combat craft could find, retrieve and possibly refine/purify water for their use. This is a refuge fleet from a refuge fleet. They're bound to be stretched extremely thin for specialized tools and may simply be lacking the proverbial can opener. Kerensky surely didn't bring ice mining ships along.
What puzzles me more is what they need the water for. I always considered it a given that SL-era ships would include sophisticated water filtration and retrieval in their life support systems so that water is re-used over and over again, with the actual "loss" being rather small. Just think of the hydroponics aboard the dirt-common Invaders. If significant amounts of water are used then I suspect it might rather be for fueling reactors and ship drives.
Btw, awesome (as in awesome) writeup Mendrugo! Have you considered putting abridged summaries up on Sarna for the BC stories you're covering?
The Michigan is an unspecified class of cruiser. In my best estimation, it's probably a Black Lion, since it was described as launching a “wave of massive anti-ship missiles.” Of the Star League-era cruisers, only the Black Lion has significant numbers of missile batteries, being able to launch a volley of ten (eight White Sharks, two Barracudas) against targets in its forward arc.You know, i always believed that Old US State named ships were actually Texas Class Battleships. 52 ships made arguably same number old states of the US...least from the old TRO:2750.
You're most welcome.I believe it was original intent from the old source. Over the years, differient authors have gone differient course randomly named the ships.
Based on SCC's list, it does appear that being named after Terran provinces (Nebraska, Perth, Wales, Bismark) was a trend, but not necessarily a class signifier, since there's also the Prinz Eugen and William Halsey. More to the point, the Michigan was specified as a cruiser, which puts it out of the Texas' BB class.
...which rules out that the SLS Michigan could have been a Texas, as all seven surviving vessels in Kerensky's Exodus Fleet are now accounted for.I'd prefer to get check over in the Ask The Writers section to make sure that the Perth was the Texas taken over by Clan Smoke Jaguar, because while it would make sense from a deductive reasoning point of view, it's not been categorically stated yet.
O0
BM, I trust you'll work this into Sarna.net? Or should I do it?
For HPG's you need to know the exact position of you are sending to and BB transmissions can be picked up by anyone else with a BB
HPGs famously generate an artificial jump point of microscopic
scale and send a signal through, so they can even work in planetary
gravity fields. This signal can be sent for up to fifty light-years,
depending on the HPG in question. While the “jump” involved
in sending the signal over many light-years carries with it all
the usual hyperspace issues, like I was talking about with emergence
wave detectors earlier, the actual signal is a conventional
electromagnetic signal, generally a radio frequency burst.
Think about that a second: you don’t need an HPG to receive
an HPG message. You need a radio.
While the radio signals from an arriving HPG burst can
propagate up to 4AU from the arrival point, such long-range
reception may entail considerable speed-of-light delays.
The affiliation prefixes for the ships are as convoluted here as anywhere else...I can answer the SLS bit - according to the text, either Hallis or McEvedy (I forget which) basically says that the Wolverines are no longer Clan, they're the Star League in Exile.
GCS Rough Rider presumably stands for "Grand Council Ship"?
And why are the Wolverines still using the SLS prefix?
The affiliation prefixes for the ships are as convoluted here as anywhere else...Couldn't it be GhostBear Clan Ship? What was Saratoga?
GCS Rough Rider presumably stands for "Grand Council Ship"?
And why are the Wolverines still using the SLS prefix?
The Wolf Clan Jenner on Barbados launches SRMs at the Wolverine forces, so it must have been retrofitted at some point post-Exodus. The original production run of Jenners had a Large Laser and two Medium Lasers on a centrally mounted turret. This proved inferior due to the vulnerability of the exposed turret assembly, and was later refitted to have four Medium Lasers and an SRM-4. In a case of parallel evolution, the Clans (or the SLDF-in-Exile) must have made the same design choices as the DCMS engineers back in the Inner Sphere.It may also have been a production variant that later became the standard variant after the large laser version was discontinued - I don't think the large laser was put into mass production without anyone noticing its drawbacks, and I believe the SRM version must have been on the drawing boards as a "Plan B" of sorts even before the first Jenners were shipped.
maybe I'm wrong,,,isnt Mckenna "Khan" of the Snow Ravens,,,,not the other way around?
You mention two screening forces, one that has meet up with Trish and one that's vanished, I'm guessing the third is the one that has been destroyed?
The Magistracy's strange source of unspecified technology was only discovered around 3025. If it was related to the Wolverines then the Succession Wars era Magistracy must have stumbled upon a Wolverine cache, or a long-dead Wolverine colony. (Or a secret cabal within the Magistracy pulled the stings.) In any case, the Wolverines didn't straight out provide the Magistracy with new technology back in the 2800s.
IIRC the Clans did some genetic testing of the Umayyads at one point and determined they were unrelated to the Wolverines—hence why they're still breathing. So if the scout group did make it to Castille space it would seem like they didn't stick around.
My only issue aside from new trumps old and IP3 is still a Canon-Rumor sourcebook, is if Betrayal of Ideas is omniscient canon fiction. Is possible folks who wrote the later information didn't have it on tap as resource to write from? We have alot good writers working on Battletech, however sometimes it feels like alot things get missed namely not being able cover all the sources or being unware of them under a time constrant. Diaries could be true but need errant because they messed up on the date. *shrugs*
Shelby Foote was one of this countrys "Leading" Historians and well published author on the Civil War(American) well before Ken Burns made his documentary,I've had the privlage of meeting him in 89' when introduced by Artist/Author John Delhinger after a Civil war battlefield tour in the South,,the only down side was I wished we had more time to talk with him than we did.
Here's what I hate most about Betrayal of Ideals.
Before, I viewed the Wolverines as a group of Star League holdovers who really couldn't make the full jump to the new paradigm. Push came to shove and things happened with painful, disastrous results. It was a tragic, and all too human event.
As I read Betrayal of Ideals, I saw the Wolverines morphed into this pure creature that was smacked down for being too good for this world. Any bad decisions that they made in the past is either shuffled off to other clans or presented in such a way that the Wolverine's unclanlike actions are justified.
Stories like this are often hard to pull off and with all due respect to Blaine Pardoe, I don't think Betrayal of Ideals was well done.
So odds are this is likely not canon? I think your suggestion it being a staging base for Liaos during the Marik's war with ComStar seems plasuable give that Liao trying gain or hold on to as many worlds as possible. Having the Highlanders there, is odd, but they had like 4 regiments at the time? Its interesting lost gem of a scenario, i don't have Battleforce source book so i wasn't aware of it.
And for Wrangler, if you're interested in BattleForce, there's a PDF rulebook bundle (BF1 and BF2) for $5 here: http://www.battlecorps.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2500Thanks Mendrugo!
Was End of Days from independent scenario or was it from old source book?
It was a stand alone scenario released as a PDF on BattleCorps. I just added links to the BattleShop profiles in the master index.Alas i am unable to see it due to my non-member status..verse money. Thank you for the link though!
http://www.battlecorps.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2508
It's interesting that the remaining ships of the Combine fleet at this point were a single home-produced Samarkand and a handful of Terran Hegemony ships sold off as obsolete and surplus hulls in the 25th century.
I'd love to see lists of names and classes for those battles...
Any word on what happened to the bulk of the Federated Suns fleet? I'm guessing the small fleets the Periphery nations built up prior to the Periphery Uprising ended up getting destroyed prior to the SLDF withdrawing.
The Federated Suns fleet was on the other end of the Cholame fracas, and they also lost more than 100 ships, including their flagship. Cholame, by itself, pretty much ended the Federated Suns and Draconis Combine as naval powers.They must had some sort of encounter. After the reunification war, Taurians had 9 WarShips in its fleet, while the MoC had 2 and OWA had none.
We've got no data on what happened to the Periphery fleets, except for the lone TDF ship that hid out in a nebula for centuries.
After the Reunification War, the Periphery States were more or less disarmed. After the Star League fell, Pirates with Nukes hit the Periphery. It seems that the TCS Vandenberg was the only ship the Taurians got away with hiding.Noticed that TCS Vandenberg didn't appear the Jihad when Taurians were taking out their nukes? They had get WoB provide them with a missile touting Frigate.
According to Historical: Liberation of Terra, Volume I, p. 50, these were the fleet strengths of the Periphery states at the start of the 2765 Uprising:They could have retroconned Secret Army having WarShips off. I point to the SLS Star Devil (Congress Class Frigate/WarShip) encounter with three "renegade" Taurian Lola II Class Destroyers. Pentagon Class Assault DropShip fluff as well, includes this encounter with Taurian nationals controlling WarShips. Then you have the Dart Class Light Cruiser, from TRO:3057R where again seperatist are controling ancient disarmed example fighting SLS Gettysburg (Essex Class Destroyer (Modern))
MoC: 22 (up from 9 in 2750)
OA: 15 (up from 4 in 2750)
TC: 31 (up from 15 in 2750)
RWR: 300+ (up from 48 in 2750)
P. 51 says that the Secret Army had no WarShips, so all these fleets (except the RWR's) were built in the open, and were known to the SLDF as part of the regular territorial state militaries.
The one page summaries of the Periphery Uprising actions in HLoT1 only cover losses amongst ground forces, and fleet actions aren't mentioned.
I'm hoping that Historical: Early Succession Wars might take a leaf from Historical: Reunification War, when it comes to showcasing some of the more prominent naval actions of the First Succession War (such as those at Cholame and Hesperus II).
If there's any known upcoming volume in which the opportunity exists to give large-scale WarShip combat a proper place in the spotlight, that volume would surely be it.
+1
Definitely a must buy if something like this gets made. I have only partially dabble in Aerotech but I have always loved naval combat and the Cholame and Hesperus II fights seem very, very interesting to me.
So short-story version from Battlecorp was infact deemed a propaganda piece? Was this due to it being not on the mark canon wise, or deliberate throw people off.
Its a kool idea taking elements of the original House Books and making stories out of them. They always had some serious interesting content there.
According to Herb, it was always intended as a propaganda piece. At the time it was put out, the Loki report on the leaflet left its veracity ambiguous, noting that the paper was old and from her homeworld, but that tests on the ink gave anomalous results. Looking into it myself, though, the anachronisms signaled to me that it was a Free Skye forgery, and Herb confirmed it in a BattleChat.I think that's (from my understanding) first stand-alone short stories that was deliberately pure canon-propaganda story published. No spitting part of it true exactly it was based on something that was omni-view true canon facts.
Sorry for being late to the party here, but why did the DCMS throw those 'Mechs away in Chain Gang?
And I thought the Invincible was THE last WarShip when it was lost, nobody else had anything?
Do we have population numbers? With a 6km radius, you cover 113 km². That's quite a lot, actually. E.g., the city of Cologne in Germany has 470km², which includes quite a bit of forest and agricultural land, and has about 1 million inhabitants. 250k people should easily fit in 113km².
Notes: Holecamp notes that “every last man, woman, and child in Caddo City [was] vaporized in an instant.” Given the 6 km radius for the Peacemaker, either Caddo city was quite compact, or the Free Worlds League brought along far larger warheads than we’ve seen rules for so far...or it was a MIRV-ed Peacemaker.
Do we have population numbers? With a 6km radius, you cover 113 km². That's quite a lot, actually. E.g., the city of Cologne in Germany has 470km², which includes quite a bit of forest and agricultural land, and has about 1 million inhabitants. 250k people should easily fit in 113km².
Circa 2766 (before the Star League Civil War) the population was 3.4 billion. Per the map, there were 17 major population centers (with 50 million+ inhabitants in each city and its suburbs). Assuming sparsely populated hinterlands, with people clustering around the major cities (due to the arid conditions, most cities are clustered around an inland sea), That's 200 million people per major urban area (per hex on the planetary invasion map, essentially), so I'd guess that these cities were very dense, full of the kind of high-rise arcologies we see in the various pieces of city art.
Notes: This section gives us some unique insight into the Snow Raven sibko process. As children, Snow Raven pilots are trained in pairs (owing to the two fighters = one point system) at the McKenna Naval facility. Balla and her former pointmate, the Trueborn Tesha, had even sworn to die together in combat to avoid the psychological damage resulting from losing a lifelong partner. Does this imply that Snow Raven fighter pilots take their Trials of Position in tandem, and pass or fail together?
Notes: Based on what we saw in “Pulsar,” some people in the BattleTech universe may indeed have prophetic visions from time to timeNo. Not in a technical sense, at least. Herb Beas was very clear on the matter in his Line Developer ruling - there is no such thing as true prophetic visions in the BT universe. And I am 101% behind him in this.
Notes: Placing Madeline “more than half a kilometer” from the DropPort sounds okay on paper, but that’s only 500 meters – 16 hexes on the BattleTech maps. (An UrbanMech could cover that distance in less than a minute.) In the Inner Sphere, that would be well within the DropPort’s security perimeter, and would be easy to secure if a whole Cluster is present at the port, ready to ship out. This, to me, indicates that Clan perimeter security is criminally lax by Inner Sphere standards – a cultural bias, since almost all combat is preceded by ritualized batchalls, bidding, and designation of a circle of equals. It is this ingrained blind spot that allows the Dark Caste to remain an active threat to the Clans, even when they’re little more than savages on horseback armed with bolt-action rifles (as seen in the Jade Phoenix books).
Notes:
Now, in the Star League, automated sentries were commonplace, from Caspars to armed sentry robots patrolling Castles Brian. The SLDF had a nigh impossible time hacking their systems, resorting to jamming instead. What happened to that tech? Abandoned, like the sniper rifles, because it doesn't fit the warrior ethos? Used, but lacking upgrades, so it becomes increasingly easy for Dark Caste operatives to neutralize it with cutting edge EW tech and/or stolen codes? In The Hunters, an AFFC analyst projects Clan SDS capabilities, telling the Serpent Fleet to expect high speed automated drones the size of fighters that give IFF challenges and, if not correctly answered, vector alongside and detonate an onboard nuke. We never saw if Huntress indeed had such technology, since the Nekekami strike team seemingly just walked into the SDS control center and skragged it. (Again, here's that "no guards" thing.)
Notes:
Given the prevalence of noteputers and the oft-stated Clan passion for Spartan efficiency, one wonders exactly why Lucien is receiving his reports as paper hardcopies, particularly since the best records of any fight would be the fully digital BattleROMs. (This isn’t a critique of author Philip Lee – there have been a plethora of references to printed reports and spies using microcameras to photograph secret documents throughout BattleTech stories and sourcebook art. My question is just why people with access to Star League technology wouldn’t have gone to a largely paperless format. It probably has much to do with BattleTech being “the future of the 1980s.”)
Notes: The Nova Cats’ use of the term “Trial of Refusal” seemed odd to me, since what they were proposing seemed, to me, more in line with a new Trial of Possession. I posed the question to the Line Developers, and received the answer that it is not possible, under Clan rules, to conduct a Trial of Refusal against the outcome of another Trial. Trials of Refusal can be issued against, say, executive decisions by commanders or by the Clan Council (or Grand Council), but Trial results are considered final, lest things degenerate into a permanent feud. Trials of Possession also generally don’t continue ad infinitum back and forth, so after a loss, the losing Clan doesn’t declare a new Trial of Possession unless the situation on the ground has markedly changed. In this case, the arrival of the 179th provides the impetus for a new Trial.
Given the clarification from the Line Developer, Lucien seems to have misspoken when he called for a Trial of Refusal, when he actually meant a Trial of Possession. (Line Developer Herbert Beas did cite this incident as a sign of the Nova Cats’ early deviancy from Clan ways…though that may have been tongue in cheek, given that Clan’s eventual shuffle off the mortal coil.)
As the author of "Whispering Death," let me clarify:
In the novel Roar of Honor a planet was in danger of being won via a Trial of Possession, and Star Captain Angela Bekker said: "I will send an HPG message to command. They will most likely send a force to issue a Trial of Refusal should we lose possession of Toffen." Note that she says "Refusal," not "Possession," indicating that if they lose the planet, the Bear reinforcements that arrive at Toffen would issue a Trial of Refusal over the Possession—not a second Trial of Possession—and if they win, then the Wolves' Trial of Possession would be overturned as though they'd never won the planet.
After reading that book, my assumption was that if someone won a ToP, the loser could declare a ToR—essentially demanding a rematch but at standard ToR odds based on how badly the ToP loser lost—and the winner of the Refusal would take or keep possession of the object in question. Then, if the loser still wanted the object, they would have to declare another ToP. Herb and Paul make a good case against this, and having just reread the ToR section in WoK, I agree with them.
Pardoe using "Refusal" instead of "Possession" may have been an unintentional error on his part that no one caught, but I had just finished reading this book while writing "Whispering Death," so it made perfect sense to me at the time, and no one in factcheck had an issue with it.
As side note: Is Kevin Killiany still writing Battletech stories? He was among my favorite of later authors writing novels/stories.
Author Philip A. Lee explains why Trial of Refusal was used:While a factchecking oversight is the most likely answer, I note that in the Toffen situation the ToR was issued by an inbound reserve force that had no chance to be included in the original ToP - but who might have played a part in the battle if it had been a drawn-out engagement instead of a short trial fight. Perhaps that gives them leverage to demand a ToR in this case.
One wonders, though, exactly how Khan Bennett got word of the events out on the Exodus Road so quickly. Since the story establishes that they were on the seventh jump from the Pentagon on the Exodus Road, that's up to 205 LY away, and the maximum range of an HPG burst is only 50 LY. The following scene establishes that the Muninn is still at Gamma 4617 4E. This also begs the question of how the Muninn checked in with Lum while they were parked at Iota 53136 9F (up to 174 LY from the Pentagon). One possibility is that the Muninn was operating in conjunction with a Naval Star of communications vessels - ten JumpShips with onboard HPGs that formed a relay back to Lum and adjusted their positions to stay in contact with the Muninn as it pursued the Hailstorm. If that's the case, then there could have been another ship in the chain at Zulu 11981 TZ, and so on. That would give the Muninn a 550 LY range in which it could remain in communication with Lum. I think this is the most likely response, since I find it highly doubtful that there would be the kind of automated HPG repeater stations like the Clans built for communications between the Homeworlds and the Inner Sphere in support of Operation REVIVAL, since the Exodus Road was supposed to be a secret at this point.
How hard would it be to find said meteorites in space?
Space is a big place though I would think certain technologies might make looking a lot easier.
Wow, Mr. Stackpole actually got to make the story of the original Red Corsair??? That's awesome, i hope he was able to write up enough for serial. Is the story purchasable thru the Battlecorp/BattleShop???
It turns out that the true purpose of the trip to Poulsbo was to surreptitiously allow Arthur and Katrina some time together, while appearing to be just one more stop on the Grand Tour.
The two had been corresponding for years, and realized their true feelings when Arthur’s JumpShip blew a coolant seal and couldn’t make it to Tharkad for Morgan’s commencement. They exchanged pledges of love via ComStar couriers and set up the Grand Tour hoping to meet on the sly.
He states that he grew up around a ‘Mech factory on Arc-Royal, and has watched new machines coming off the line. The Kell Hound SB names the Arc-Royal factory the Eire MechWorks, but adds the caveat that it manufactures only components.That's the old BT question from the SW era - when is a factory a factory (as opposed to a well-stocked spare parts depot, an assembly plant, a repair/refit workshop, or any combination of these)?
Didn't Defiance Industries of Hesperus II make Goliaths at some point? They found some prototypes there after a landslide uncovered a long buried bunker, per Project Phoenix's entry, explaining the radical appearance change. (Or am I getting that confused with the Scorpion LAM project?)I think maybe the latter - the TRO: Project Phoenix entry for the Scorpion details Defiance finding a long-forgotten bunker containing records and prototypes from the defunct Scorpion-LAM programme, and using the work on the modified chassis to develop the the Barghest and Tarantula. It also talks about the Scorpion being dropped from production by Brigadier prior to the Succession Wars and the design fading from memories and life. Page 28 refers.
I think maybe the latter - the TRO: Project Phoenix entry for the Scorpion details Defiance finding a long-forgotten bunker containing records and prototypes from the defunct Scorpion-LAM programme, and using the work on the modified chassis to develop the the Barghest and Tarantula. It also talks about the Scorpion being dropped from production by Brigadier prior to the Succession Wars and the design fading from memories and life. Page 28 refers.
Which, of course, contradicts what Stackpole wrote in the Warrior Trilogy. ;)Just out of curiosity, how so?
I’d known Arthur for years, but we’d just been friends, and so meeting him and Morgan on Poulsbo was a pleasant surprise.
This comes from Katrina's own mouth in a context in which she has no reason to lie, in fact she has every reason to be totally honest in the telling of the story to Jeana Clay. Not to mention that Arthur is seventeen years dead and Katrina has been securely on the throne for two decades by this point so there's no reason to keep it secret if they were an item prior to Poulsbo.Thanks,RB. I didn't catch that. I appreciate the citation, especially as it wast just to settle my curiosity. Thanks again.
There are a couple of other inconsistencies as well. For instance, Katrina says she came to Poulsbo to dedicate a monument to the Stealths; in the Warrior Trilogy she says she was there for a simple base inspection, which is backed up by Handbook: House Steiner's account of the events.
The use of the 15th Marik Militia as the OpFor raises some questions. FM:FWL notes that the 15th took massive casualties in 3002 during an invasion of Loric, and didn’t return to service until 3008. Was it rebuilding on Rochelle? Was it “not quite ready…but we’re desperate” and thrown into the fracas on Rochelle despite not being fully rebuilt? Frabby?Remember that at this point, the defense campaign on Rochelle is finished. These Marik house troops probably didn't fight, and were only sent there afterwards to reinforce House Marik's claim to the "salvage" 'Mechs of their own merc units. Which in turn sounds like a perfect assignment for a rebuilding Marik Militia regiment.
The only “Special Unit Ability” that would apply would be the 15th Marik Militia’s ability to “Force the Initiative.” Its other special abilities stem from post-3050 developments (anti-mercenary fervor and Blakist ties). The Lone Wolves special ability (being able to bring half their troops onto the map off any edge except the enemy’s home edge, a minimum of five hexes away) could be applied, but it is specifically contradicted by the setup, and would result in a swift end for the poor Awesome, which would have the Charger right on top of it from the scenario’s inception.Since initiative is pretty critical in this scenario, any ability affecting initiative would probably ruin the balance. I've never played with special unit abilities, for which I have a mild dislike (I feel they're kinda redundant, and only add extra rules). None are mentioned in the scenario setup, and they wouldn't (imho) apply to a 1:1 duel anyways.
This battle also establishes the grounds for the legendary enmity between the Free Worlds League and Snord’s Irregulars. One wonders what Rhonda was doing during all this? Was she with the rear-guard that followed Snord and the rest to the port?I'm not even sure if Rhonda was with her father early on, or when she joined her father. Also, the Manglers were leading a loose coalition of mixed merc forces. We can't be sure, for example, if Carlyle was a Mangler, a Lone Wolf, individual merc, or affiliated with another merc unit at this point when she decided to throw her lot with the Manglers and make for the starport rather than have her 'Mech confiscated.
That's the old BT question from the SW era - when is a factory a factory (as opposed to a well-stocked spare parts depot, an assembly plant, a repair/refit workshop, or any combination of these)?
I tend to agree with the assertion that Eire MechWorks must have been producing full BattleMechs at some point, presumably up until during Morgan Kell's early life, and was reduced to producing parts only recently (i.e. in the late 2900s).
I disagree with the Grasshopper being produced there though; this is a relatively rare design typically seen in the CC and FWL area. As a counter-proposal, I'd suggest the Goliath. It's apparently out-of-production by 3024, yet there's a curious sidenote in HB:Marik p. 114 (PDF: p. 116) where it says the Lyran regiments are well-stocked with Zeus's and Goliaths, which to me seems to indicate the Lyrans used to produce Goliaths.
Looking at Wayne Waco’s biography in the Mercenary’s Handbook, it appears that he’s 40 at this point, and John is 18. (Of course, the bio info has to be taken with a grain of salt, since it also says he was born on “the Liao world of Le Blanc.” You know, the Liao world in the Draconis March about halfway between Robinson and the Combine border. ;) Ah, the early days…) [Note: The MH entry spells it "Leblanc," rather than "Le Blanc," so the best correction I can offer is that the author meant "Lesalles," which is a Liao world.]Another possibility - and I admit, it may not be anything like what the original author had in mind - is that given that other sources have indicated that the Confederation has lots of systems with more than one inhabited world in, the Liao world of Le Blanc may be like the Liao world of Thomas that Pavel Ridzik apparently ruled... a secondary world in a system with a different name whose location has never been clearly identified.
When was this scenario written? Was the sourcebook published when FASA unleased the Clans? I think it was interesting Rhonda was command a 5-Mech force, like the Clan formation usually operate. Is this a fluke?
It was one of the first BattleTech products, released in 1986, covering Snord's Irregulars in the closing years of the 3rd Succession War. I think the Clans were introduced in 1989.Ahh, sorry. I wasn't sure what year scenario book was released. Didn't know how far in advance they were planning them. Properly was a fluke. A fluke that works nicely well since they later said Snord and some of his friends were Clan in origin.
The whole Dragoon reveal seems to have been planned out from the get go, so the Snord reveal goes along with that.
I'll be taking a slight hiatus from the chronoblog while I move to Tajikistan. I'll return once my Internet connection is set up (hopefully sometime next week).Good luck and be careful, Mendrugo!
I'll be taking a slight hiatus from the chronoblog while I move to Tajikistan. I'll return once my Internet connection is set up (hopefully sometime next week).
I made it to Tajikistan, but won't have home e-mail access until sometime next week at the earliest.
I don't really know much about atomic weapons but aren't there dirtier versions compared to the standard kinds? Cobalt laced or something?
Or perhaps these Atomic weapons are of a certain size that is beyond the unofficial limit. Ones much larger than what are commonly used?
The scenario iirc said each Rifleman has four "reloads", which I read to mean 8 shots.
Sounds like a prototype 'One Shot' AC system where all guns of the same type are somehow able to share their shots... somehow...
How big is each force? I see ratios and compositions, but not absolute strength.
If this story does take place before Ian's death by a matter of days (unless the mention is rather heavy in character, I haven't read it), would Hanse not still be considered the Field Marshal of the Capellan March? That could be a spot to explain the mix-up, though with changing dates I'm not surprised either way.
The capital of Addicks is named St. Randall. A lot of the BattleTech writers and developers have had their names inserted into planetary designations (Randall’s Regret = Randall Bills; Herbania = Herbert Beas; Oyevania = Oyestein Tvedten; Stockpool = Michael Stackpole; Heart Fjord = Chris Hartford; Slewis = Sam Lewis; Jordan Weisman = Jordan Wais), but Randall Bills appears to have been inserted into the background details as well: St. Randall on Addicks; Randall’s Rose on Argyle; and the inimitable Major General Randy Hasek-Bills of the 6th Syrtis Fusiliers and (later) 20th Avalon Hussars. (Other writer/developers have also had in-universe avatars – Lyran historian Bertram Habeas, Professor-General Sam Lewis; Zhong-shao Jordan Weiss; Zhong-shao Peter Smith, and so on.)
A note about the timeline re: death of Ian Davion - since most (all?) other sources state a different date from HTP:Mallory's World, I think it's worth asking if this latest source probably suffered from a typo or something or if it's really supposed to retcon the date, with all the problems Mendrugo mentioned attached to that?
On a related note, you'll recall that Caleb Davion was assisted in his journeys by a man only he could see or hear.
Ooooooooh booooy!
Irreplaceable is very very good. It ranks very high among my list of favourite BT stories.
Jason Hansa said it began as a scenario pack about the Halstead Station campaign, hence the detailed military information.
One thing I always wondered though, given that Dana was cut off when she died, how did Hanse acquire a piece of her cockpit's ferroglass for that figurine in the epilogue?
The Judas Blind vs. The Kell Hounds sourcebook seems to be a similar case to the Roughriders in The Race Is Not To The Swift - different writers, apparently unawares of each other's work, writing mutually exclusive canon material. Both sources, for example, claim to narrate how the Hounds captured the DropShip that they rechristened the Nuada Argetlan - at different times, from two different Kurita regiments, under different circumstances.
She responds that they’re fighting to prevent civil war from becoming a habit in the League.
This seems odd to me. Prior to Anton's Rebellion, how many civil wars had the League fought? I can't think of any, especially within the lifetimes of anyone in that story.
The Kell Hound sourcebook notes 3014 as the year that “Patrick Kell meets Takara and begins an affair that lasts 13 years.” I wonder what happened to his paramour Tisha from “Not the Way the Smart Money Bets.”
All fairness of The Spider and the Wolf, this was arguabling one first times we'd as the fans saw images of any of these characters. I wish they still made graphic novels/scenario books like this. Its one of the things that drew me into Battletech in the first place.
Anyways, i was under the impression that the hovecars that Kristofur was flying around in was actually Manhattan. I thought it said so in the book. Fuzzy memories i guess.
Anywho, it was still great book and frankly old canon, until something else replaced it.
Chronology I: I always took the scenario to take place immediately after the death of Bobby Hunnel in his Griffin's explosion. The missing fourth man in Kerensky's command lance just screams Hunnel, and the scenario in question was included in the Comic after all.
Chronology II: "Six months" may be an error for "six weeks".
the unit was made up of Freeborns.
That would have been an elegant solution, I agree. However, the problem with Willard/Michael being the same person is that, per "Natasha's Surprise," Michael Andrews is fighting on Calloway VI in November 3014, while Willard Andrews is in the brig from September/October 3014 - March 3015.
The only way all the bits fit is that Willard Andrews was left behind because his 'Mech wasn't ready, and then died with Joshua and the other dependents. That leaves Michael Andrews as the company's sole Shadow Hawk pilot on Calloway VI and New Delos.
At the very least family, I should think. Why else would in the still rather hardscrabble time of the Third Succession War would anyone be passing 'Mechs from one person to another.
Are all of them still Clan at this point? By 3014, the Dragoons have been in the sphere almost a decade and only made one supply run, six years prior. Replacing combat losses is something that the Dragoons weren't exactly shy about, though admittance was extremely exclusive for decades. Exclusive doesn't mean non-existent, though.
On the "likely" scale, I'd rate it about a two out of ten being generous, but that's still better than zero.
It occurs to me that 19 dependents, plus Joshua, plus seven security troops equals 27. Given that 27 gets bandied about literally everywhere else, I'd be inclined to take it as the correct figure.
Has Living Legends been confirmed to be canon event? A temporally-displaced SLS Manassas, hasn't been appeared in the toumans of any of the Clans from the Field Manual: Updates to tWoR source books from what i have seen.
Has Living Legends been confirmed to be canon event? A temporally-displaced SLS Manassas, hasn't been appeared in the toumans of any of the Clans from the Field Manual: Updates to tWoR source books from what i have seen.It's a FASA product so it's canon. And like Mendrugo said, the adventure makes it quite clear that the SLS Masassas doesn't survive intact (if it does, against all odds or because the players blew the mission, then it will blow up anyways in yet another technical malfunction).
Couldn't these MechWarriors instead of being brothers be having alloted Honor names?
I wonder if the Dragoons had a sample of Joshua’s giftake on hand, or maintained a Clan-style genetic repository at this point. They certainly did once they set up shop on Outreach. I seem to recall something about the Clans using the ashes of dead Warriors as part of the nutrient bath for Trueborn fetuses. If they found Joshua’s body, wouldn’t that be the Clan tradition, rather than burying it Spheroid style?
Has Alpha Hydri appeared in any of the Maps? I noticed its not shown in the ISP3, if it was a Periphery world, its not listed in the lastest maps.
Cool! Thanks for the info, Frabby.Or possibly a former RWR facility that's been repurposed.
If the Explorer Corps only found Alpha Hydri in 3014, 3015 seems a bit soon for a space station to be constructed out there. That means there's a good chance that Hydri B Station is an abandoned Star League facility.
One wonders, though, why Hanse didn't spring for a Type V arm for Justin Allard, if the tech was available? (I suppose the myomer arm wouldn't have accommodated the three-shot laser, for one thing.)
Probably because it would mark him as someone backed by a House Lord, which would have blown his cover.
One additional point of interest about Sandoval's history: The Robinson Battle Academy was leveled in the First Succession War. The Davion housebook notes that it was refurbished and reopened in 3020. But, if Aaron graduated from there in the late 2900s, was it damaged/taken out of commission again between his attendance and the 3020 remodeling?Well, the school could had temporary location while the newly rebuilt school ground were rebuilt/built. It doesn't take long irl rent building, while military school is built unless resources are hard to come by. More important thing I'd would imagine is keeping the education and instructions going to keep cranking out more soldiers for the March.
But wasn't that the point of the ruse? He'd been backed by Hanse and had close ties to the regime through his father, but then had a highly publicized falling out over the (rigged) treason trial, went into exile on Solaris, and then got recruited by the Maskirovka. Max wanted him precisely because he had earlier been backed by a rival House Lord.
When Justin's recovering in the hospital, Hanse tells him that he'll get the very best treatment, and then the NAIS techies present a tricked out Type IV prosthesis as the latest and greatest prosthesis ever, which could even allow him (with proper software) to pilot a 'Mech again. Yet, per the Prosthesis rules in TRO:3026, a Type V myomer arm could have been fully functional without needing any special software.
Thus, my guess is that he was given the Type IV primarily to conceal the laser array during his undercover work.
Dixie is portrayed as a major border world, with multiple regiments of combined arms regiments and supply depots with “billions of kroner” worth of munitions. The LCAF garrison regards a two-battalion attack as a pinprick raid. Yet, by 3025 (nine years later) in “The Heart of Dixie,” a character notes that a Marik ‘Mech battalion would be more than enough force to take the world. Did Dixie fall so far in less than a decade?
A major center for the Replacement Depot Corps and staging post for attacks against the Free Worlds League, the people of Dixie have a long tradition of martial excellence and resilience, making the planet an ideal location for a regional militia and HQ. Though no longer associated with a regional command center, the militia continues to play a major role in guarding the planet's supply depots.
The phrase “Mary will be remembered in the halls,” is interesting. Pollock notes that “there was nothing more to say in this part of space.” Is “remembered in the halls” code for having an entry in the Dragoon and/or Clan Wolf Remembrance, having good reports filed in her personal codex, or that her giftake will be placed into contention for an in-house Dragoon cloning program?
Are they still doing Unit Digests?
They just released mine - The Iron Land Wildcatters - a few weeks ago. However, the submission guidelines have changed - they won't take a Digest without an accompanying story.Well, your very astute writer, going through so many backgrounds and short stories. I can only imagine your unit's story would be very interesting.
Chris,
Thanks for the clarifications. Much appreciated, and an interesting take on how New Capetown's society could have evolved.
I'd assumed that Luys' mother came back because of her family (though that didn't turn out so well, at least as far as Piet was concerned) and because of her real estate holdings (the farm). In my mind, she'd gone offworld as a mercenary, banged around the Succession Wars for a while, shed her native racism after being exposed to more cosmopolitan settings on the front lines, and then, when her lover was killed, leaving her alone and pregnant, fled back to the only place she thought of as home.
I'd be interested to hear your official take.
Given how old the scenario book is, i'd say its coincidence.
Looking back on this, without knowing what really going on in their heads we'd never know. I'd say its possible, the warriors of the Clan Expedition seem to really adapted being in Inner Sphere culture. Clan warrior would bulk at some things these warriors would be doing for sake of gathering information.
There's an interview with Stackpole that apparently never saw print outside Germany where he explains the beginnings of the Clan concept. I summarized it here:
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,27619.msg632928.html#msg632928 (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,27619.msg632928.html#msg632928)
In short, while BattleTech always carried the story seed of Kerensky's army returning, the actual Clan idea and setup was devised by Stackpole with some input from Jordan Weisman in 1988.
A sourcebook from an earlier date couldn't contain deliberate Clan references. Also, consider that dueling and ritualized warfare were as common in the IS as they were among the Clans in the late Succession Wars era.
Notes: To survive, Theodore relies on the teachings of his Special Operations tutor Brian Comerford and Tetsuhara-sensei. Since Robert Charrette wrote both “Heir to the Dragon” and “Wolves on the Border,” it’s a sure bet that Minobu Tetsuhara had a role in training the Coordinator’s heir.I rather think it was Minoru Tetsuhara, Minobu's father. I recall a mentioning... somewhere... that the elder Tetsuhara was a Sun Zhang teacher, but it's not mentioned anywhere about Minobu. Minoru was also a loyal Kurita samurai, to the point of later refusing Dechan Fraser's gift of Warlord Samsonov's frozen head - he would have nothing to do with the vendetta and considered his son shamed.
Interestingly, Kenner notes that the Erewhon River “isn’t like the oceans we trained in.” We know that the Dragoons spent some time training (with Goliath Scorpion assistance) prior to leaving for the Inner Sphere. It’s interesting to see that their training included a variety of hostile environment operations, including underwater.It doesn't need to be that. The Dragoons were put on garrison duty on Carver V in 3013, which is noted as an ocean world with islands holding military fortifications. I recall a notion somewhere that this word was positively used for maritime/underwater warfare training. Knowing the Dragoons, my bet would be that they trained in the oceans of Carver V instead of twiddling thumbs there.
I'm actually amused to be able read a story where Lyrans aren't bad they usually are in combat prior to FedCom formation.
Aye, the Lyrans in this fight for Hesperus seem to actually know what their doing. Ambushes, underwater pickets, diversionary attacks. Definitely not simple wall of steel tactics.
It doesn't need to be that. The Dragoons were put on garrison duty on Carver V in 3013, which is noted as an ocean world with islands holding military fortifications. I recall a notion somewhere that this word was positively used for maritime/underwater warfare training. Knowing the Dragoons, my bet would be that they trained in the oceans of Carver V instead of twiddling thumbs there.
Love the write up, you got handed to Jason for giving us a good gripping story. I hope it comes out in one of the Anthologies soon soo i can have it in the printed form in a nice book where it belongs. ;)
I'm actually amused to be able read a story where Lyrans aren't bad they usually are in combat prior to FedCom formation.
I find it hard to believe that the Dragoon resupply runs were made by the entirety of the Dragoons. A handful of cargo DropShips would do the job nicely, because all they truly needed were spare parts and replacement 'Mechs.
The mere fact that the complete Dragoons unit vanished doesn't mean the complete Dragoons went all the way back to the next periphery supply cache (much less the homeworlds - I guess there was only a HPG link).
Some additional thoughts:
1. You don't have to have a permanent command circuit in place. I'd set one up if a supply run is on the horizon. Three or four months advance preparation should nicely do the trick.
2. The Clans dearly love Lithium-Fusion Batteries, which IS agencies including ComStar wouldn't recognize if you bashed them over the head with them. At least in the priphery they may have employed LFB-equipped JumpShips or even their WarShips.
Marcus Kurita was made head of the Otomo. The Genyosha wasn't formed yet.
I think the armament for Kerensky's Orion might severely post-date this novel. Indeed, the concept of a Snub-Nose PPC may very well do the same. It's also possible that General Kerensky piloted his Orion in multiple configurations over his long career.
Maybe the turrets on Salem got upgraded only recently and the local Mask operatives lacked the time to get that info back to where it would catch up with the attacking Cappie Mercs?
Warlord Sorsenson related to Sorenson's Sabres commander Daniel Sorenson?
I thought that McKinnon's Raiders were part of the 7th Crucis Lancers rather than the Davion Guards. I know that they were an independent unit at the time--had they been attached to the Guards?Fox's Teeth are formally attached to the 7th. However, their assigned to whatever they're needed. During the least the late 3rd Succession Wars, the 7th Crucis Lancers had number independent companies flying around on independent missions if memory serves correctly.
I thought that McKinnon's Raiders were part of the 7th Crucis Lancers rather than the Davion Guards. I know that they were an independent unit at the time--had they been attached to the Guards?
As far as the Marauder armor being something special, Wanabe only recognizes that because she's a mecha fangirl who obsesses over the details. The other troops (and most Spheroids) had no idea original Marauder armor was anything special. The Marauder armor isn't that obvious LosTech, except to an expert like Wanabe.This, too, I disagree with. The original lostech armor is explicitly mentioned in TRO3025 which in turn is an in-universe document freely handed out by ComStar to (also) disseminate some subtle misinformation.
Well. I can't prove you wrong, but this time I'm not convinced by your arguments either. Wolf's Dragoons being the unknown attackers in this story just feels wrong, and while not impossible I regard it as rather unlikely.
"Infallible" was more a reference to the out-of-universe depiction of the can-do-no-wrong Dragoons, as is most of my line of argumentation.
The anthology is from 1988, the same year as the novel Riposte that revealed a first glance at ComStar's secret army of mysterious white 'Mechs. And here, too, we're dealing with mysterious white 'Mechs...
ComStar has proven to be able to to replicate Death Commando 'Mechs right down to their serial numbers, so they'd be able to remove these markings altogether from black ops 'Mechs.
When you argue that they could have been from a Brian Cache then the same line of argumentation could be used in favor of any party who found a Star League cache, anywhere. It doesn't have to be Dragoons. (And cached 'Mechs would invariably have to be of Star League manufacture; I'm not aware of any Clan manufacture of Marauders.)
But, iirc, these 'Mechs aren't unpainted, primer-painted, or in original Star League colors. They are white, unless I' misremembering.
The author hasn't penned more BT stories so there's no lead here either.
This, too, I disagree with. The original lostech armor is explicitly mentioned in TRO3025 which in turn is an in-universe document freely handed out by ComStar to (also) disseminate some subtle misinformation.
They're described as having a "sand and olive" camouflage paintjob (see attachment), not white. "Naiku stifled a laugh. Instead of the sand and olive tones he'd expected, the 'Mech was an explosion of brilliant colors." The art also confirms a desert camo paint scheme.Whoops. In this case, apologies for making wrong and misleading statements! Must have mixed that up with some other "mysterious attackers" incident.
(Also, TRO:3025 is still four years away from publication at this point, so perhaps the Marauder armor trivia wasn't yet widespread knowledge.)<facepalm> :-[ That's actually a very good point, assuming that your timing is right. But, as you wrote, based on Theodore Kurita's purported rank it can't be later than 3023 so the point stands.
It’s not clear exactly what the Grenadiers have to do to destroy the NAIS building. No info on its type of construction (Light -> Hardened) or CF score is given. I’d make it a 120 CF hardened building, since it’s intended to survive splashes of magma.
With the discovery that the Arkab Legions were still operating Star League era tech in the 3rd Succession War being from a much later publication, I take it that it's basically impossible for this to be some sort of rogue DCMS element/warlod appropriating equipment from the Legion to use in some kind of powerplay?
I'm also thinking someone like Duke Ricol could be a candidate, as he's presented in the Gray Death Legion books as having all sorts of contacts - including elements within ComStar - and the GDL books are pretty old in terms of provenance.
Well, if you look at the Deployment section, it mentions a heavy building. ^-^
Whoops, missed that in the Game Setup section. Is this one of yours? I'm happy to give credit where credit is due.
Yup, all mine.
Did you also do "Lead Rainmakers" and "Jumping the Diamond Shark?"
Yup.
Cool. I've updated my index and the individual entries to provide attribution.
How come your name isn't attached to them on BattleCorps? Was that by design?
La Bon was featured in MWDA Novel Masters of War to some extensive detail. Stackpole depicted the world having extensive underwater cities and industry while trying preserve the surface areas from over development. Alaric Wolf (later Ward-Steiner (Hidden Davion)) was taken prisoner down there for meeting of mercenary commands of Prefecture IX.
Is there any maps of La Blon? I can imagine there isn't alot info on the underwater stuff, but that certainly make a interesting scenario under the seas.
My first idea were IJJs, which were prototyped here on the Super Griffin.
And then there's my favorite opinion of 3025 being the default year for everything in ye olde BattleTech.
Discussing the terms of the marriage, they discuss how the New Avalon Catholic Church will reconcile the joint ceremony with the main Catholic Church which dominates on Tharkad. The two reminisce over childhood trips to Rome to see the Vatican. Young Katrina met the Pope, but Hanse and his brother Ian, being schismatics, did not have a private audience.
That's an excellent point. Perhaps even though the Steiners were Lutherans, they represented billions of Catholics in the Lyran Commonwealth. I'm not sure whether the NACC tolerated Terran Catholicism within the Federated Suns.
At the time of the schism, the New Avalon Catholic Church apparently went back and decanonized all the mainline Catholic popes going back to around the time of interstellar spaceflight, which may have struck a nerve with the guys in Rome.
From the March 16 BattleChat:
[01:58] <Circinus_Enquirer> The recent papal elections got me wondering - the Pope killed by Amaris was Clement XXVII, but the New Avalon Pope that calmed the anti-Asian riots in the Federated Suns was Clement XX (20 years later) - typo or result of the schism?
[02:01] <@Habeas2> Circinus_Enquirer – Schism
I think it's possible the NACC has it's own line of popes, so the NACC Clement XX is the 20th Clement of the NACC, different from the RCC's Clement line....Need to go check the original HBHD....
Craig
The story’s date of April 20, 3022 strikes me as somewhat odd, since Warrior: En Garde has a prologue scene dated June 1, 3022 where Myndo Waterly says “Down there in that courtyard, Hanse Davion and Katrina Steiner are being allowed to sign a treaty that will forever destroy the balance of power in the Successor States.” To me, that implies that the Federated Commonwealth treaty was signed by Hanse and Katrina on June 1. Yet the dialogue in The Gauntlet indicates it was signed on April 20. I can’t imagine that affairs of state would let Hanse and Katrina stay on Terra to negotiate a treaty for six weeks. I’ll ask in the Line Developer’s section and possibly amend this entry’s date depending on the response.
So the Pope will grant a private audience to a Lutheran (I mean, if you wanna talk about schisms...) but not to a New Avalonian Catholic? That would seem to imply that either the relationship between the Roman and New Avalon churches must have been extremely strained, or that there was some level of reconciliation, at some point in BT history, between Catholicism and mainline Protestantism. Either is quite interesting, IMO.
Man, 31st-century Sirius really couldn't catch a break. First Louis Grise and his power play, then Alisender Gyrn and his pogroms, then military dictatorship under Helen Thrall, who was then assassinated by the Blakists in preparation for their takeover...
The only thing that makes me think it might not have been Acamar is that that's right around when Operation Stiletto was taking place which was such a relatively large military operation on Acamar that it would be a little odd if it went entirely unmentioned.
It sounds like the description of Al Na'ir is a little off, to put it mildly. According the LinkNet info on Al Na'ir, its thin atmosphere is nigh-unbreathable due to the high levels of sulfur and as a result the population lives in domed cities or underground, yet it doesn't sound from your description like there's any mention of any of this. It also mentions that the "surface water supply [is] limited almost exclusively to the polar icecaps", so I'm not sure why there's a "Lake Acorn".
You listed this as a short story, but from your description it definitely sounds like a scenario.
Yeah, in my continuous effort to do something different with scenarios, I had the three scenarios that can be linked to be one tough slog. I guess stand-alone scenarios are passe, so Jason wrote some fiction to go with it.
So the attribution of the scenarios to Ken' Horner on the cover is a mistake?
I like linked scenarios, myself. My favorite scenario pack series was the North American campaign from "Fall of Terra," since you had to balance the risk of dying in an earlier scenario from being too miserly with your shots against dying later in the scenarios because your 'Mech ran out of ammo.
No, I did the scenarios, Jason did the stories that go with them.
BTW Mendrugo, IIRC you have that huge index file of consumer products in the Inner Sphere, and I remember you posted it for download a few iterations of the forums ago; any chance you be willing to hook me up with a copy and/or post that again?
It's 560 kb, which exceeds the attachment limit. Let me play with it tonight and I'll see if I can split it into two files to get under the limit, or maybe convert it to simple text.
Erm...so Kit deSummersville and Ken' Horner are the same person? ???
BTW Mendrugo, IIRC you have that huge index file of consumer products in the Inner Sphere, and I remember you posted it for download a few iterations of the forums ago; any chance you be willing to hook me up with a copy and/or post that again?
Yup.
Of note is that Deiron is a member of the original First Circuit. I can well imagine that after the fallout of the Necess Kurita affair that either Comstar moved their chief representative to the Combine back to Dieron or never moved the posting from Deiron.
Besides, if the Coordinator wanted to talk with Precentor Deiron, it's only an HPG call away.
Perhaps, to avoid hamstringing the Hounds entirely too much by completely removing all non-energy weapons from the game on their side, treat ballistic and missile weapon hits as Paint/Obscurant ammunition, as if fired from a Fluid Gun? On a subsequent 9+, each hit would impose a +1 to target numbers for the affected unit. It's not damage, but it's certainly not useless, either.
Quentin is a scorchingly hot, arid world. Workers wear locally made “heatsuits” with humidifier masks when working outside. The AFFS Quentin garrison in “A Dragon of a Different Color” appeared to be fielding lots of infantry – I wonder if they were XTC infantry wearing heat suits (presumably something along the lines of a light environment suit).
Jaime’s comment about fighting to the death in a hopeless last stand being a waste of resources and a sign of irresponsibility is interesting. The bit about being a waste of resources is in line with standard Clan philosophy, and the stated reason behind the whole bidding process. However, fighting a heroic last stand and earning a glorious death is the goal of every Trueborn. Jaime’s rejection of that philosophy probably reflects his status as a Freeborn, who doesn’t have the “die well” imperative of the Trueborn, because his genes would never have been considered worthy for inclusion in the breeding program no matter how he died.
Dragon of a Different Color? Forgive me if i missed it being mentioned before, but what exactly is that?
A Kell Hound scenario (one of two set on Quentin IV, along with "The Fox, the Hound, and the Dragon") that takes place a few months before the Dragoon invasion, in which Kell Hound forces and planetary militia are using paint loads in a wargame scenario when they are suddenly attacked by a real Sword of Light battalion. I think I mis-stated above - the details of the planetary militia composition were inferred from "The Fox, the Hound, and the Dragon."Ahhh. Thank you for for clearing it up. I tried searching for it, but it was too wordy for Search function for the board.
Dragon of a Different Color: http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,27831.msg837498.html#msg837498
The Fox, the Hound, and the Dragon: http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,27831.msg837704.html#msg837704
Ahhh. Thank you for for clearing it up. I tried searching for it, but it was too wordy for Search function for the board.
What makes you think the two Ravannion battles on Fallon II were supposed to be the same battle (where he died in 3023)?
- The Stinger entry clearly says Ravannion survived that particular encounter (3019) while the Blackjack entry says he died in the Fallon II battle mentioned there;
- By the time of the Xhosa battle (3022, Blackjack entry) Ravannion was "infamous", strongly suggesting he'd been trying his horde tactics for some time by that point;
- McKinnon's Raiders were stationed in the Draconis March since 3015 where they had numerous skirmishes with unspecified enemy forces (Fox's Teeth p. 7);
- Fallon II seems to have always been a FedSuns world (as far as I can tell) so the Fallon II battle would probably have been a raid not by, but against the 7th Crucis Lancers; or alternatively, Fallon II may have been a contested system for some time pre 3025
The Fallon II battle involving the 12th Star Guard may be either battle (perhaps their Draconis Combine contract was a short objective raid thing, no long-term contract).
This appears to be one of the rare scenarios that was written before the Lucasfilm lawsuit, since it references the BattleMechs as both ‘Mechs and ‘droids, suggesting that a hasty editing pass wasn’t thorough enough. (BattleTech’s first edition was titled “BattleDroids,” but was hastily renamed for a 2nd edition after a sternly worded letter from Lucasfilm’s legal division arrived informing FASA that the term “droid” was copyrighted.)
So was it a lawsuit or a C&D letter?
AFAIK, it never got to the point of a lawsuit. In which case, you really shouldn't say there was one.
In fact, since the scenario setup says that it was the result of an investigation that revealed a bandit spy in the Combine, that points to ISF involvement. Perhaps the fake Widows were the ISF's elite Sword of the Void DEST MechWarrior unit. In Wolves on the Border, we later see the Combine using 'Mechs painted as the Widows to generate bad publicity for the Dragoons, so this would be entirely consistent with their playbook.
I've never heard of the Sword of the Void: where have they been detailed/mentioned?
Are you aware of them ever being mentioned before or since?
Isn't the MW1 story considered non-canon along with the Crescent Hawk's Revenge?
Btw, where did you get those Blazing Aces and Dark Wing logos from? For my Sarna writeups, I had to make do with a screenshot of the former and a scan of the latter.
Colony must be darn small if they're that badly off and have something worth while be living on the rock to afford buy from Pirates.
Bizarre. I did like some of the comics. I wish they were in production, until they really got bad. I'm surprise that this was considered canon enough to be used as a canon articles.
This falls into sort of the same category as the computer games. If it generally fits the universe themes and isn't directly contradicted by canon accounts, then it can be considered to have taken place in the BattleTech universe, but it's not really "primary source" material. This one has a stronger claim to canonicity than any of the other Blackthorne comics, since it's a straight-up adaptation of a canon scenario.What about the link to the "lost" or unpublished Blackthrone comic by that artist. I believe that maybe a fragment of BattleForce lost #3 issue.
What about the link to the "lost" or unpublished Blackthorne comic by that artist. I believe that maybe a fragment of BattleForce lost #3 issue.
I can only review what I've got on hand. Thanks for the link, by the way. The pages show an Atlas blasting the bejeezus out of a Vindicator, but there isn't enough there to constitute a plot or setting that would justify a review.I understand, there wasn't enough. However the dialog above the first page was insightful about the comic itself.
I understand, there wasn't enough. However the dialog above the first page was insightful about the comic itself.
Mendrugo, are those logos for real or just random pictures you've gathered over the years?
There are different accounts about the size, nature and composition of Carlyle's Commandos in different sources, namely two of the GDL books and the scenario pack. Herb provied an official rulling not too long ago to reconcile them and clean up that particular mess. See Sarna article on Carlyle's Commandos (http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Carlyle's_Commandos) for details.
I guess the remaining commandos either never survived the invasion then or something else happened to them. Since they never became (if i can remember the book) part of the Legion.
So Gray finally meets his future wife, Lori Kalmar. A scene that will be repeated in the last book of the Legion's series of novels.
Anyways, since Decision at Thunder Rift was written before alot things happened in game rules to certain extent or explained fluff wise. Light PPC carrier is interesting example, wasn't later redefined that the "Light PPCs" on the Light PPC Carrier were man-portable PPCs used now with Infantry and Battle Armor? Lori Kalmar's reaction to threat of Infernos to surrender later explained she was dramatized with fear of fire? Verses not worried about being cooked by the Infernos?
New review should post later today - things have been crazy at work lately and what little free time I had was spent on a special BattleTech-related project (details soon). The chronological fiction review will be back on schedule shortly.
I rememberd it being mentioned those weapons being Man-Portable ones. I just glanced at Thomas Gressman's rendition of scence in The Dying Time, where it between pages 5 to 8 he recounts what happens at the first meetings. Grayson's leads another weapons-carrier behind his Jeep, leading the Locust down a street. From the description of the scence, it sounds like the was packing a true PPC, as it did damage to the Locust.
I don't have my old original novels handy, so hard to say. Gressman's version sounds like Weapon-Carrier has real PPC in it.
- Erit Cluster... I've been thinking it might be the Dark Nebula, which is the nearest thing to a Cluster in the general area and an otherwise blank slate.
The Dark Nebula is a star cluster - it has a number of stars and pulsars, but it's also fluffed as being largely unmappedThe key word being "largely". With "several" white and red dwarf suns and "at least 17 pulsars" it's easily thinkable that a small number of systems - including Drovahchein - are in fact mapped out and inhabited (besides Camelot Command which was hidden elsewhere around another red dwarf).
Bart asked Sheriff Parker to join him in attacking the pirates, but the Sheriff dismisses the idea of “men against a BattleMech” as an impossibility and the planned battle as a danger to the whole town. (Hundreds of light years away, Grayson Carlyle’s ears perk up…)
I think OOC The Fox's Teeth was written as a Battledroids supplement, before even TRO3025 came out and before the Union-class got statted. There was just the general impression that DropShips were powerful, and apparently the impression that space weaponry was "naval" grade, i.e. an order of magnitude beyond 'Mech-scale firepower.You know, that would made DropShips bit cooler and feel less undergunned if they had faced incoming fighters. Sub-cap but not a subcap weapon.
As a side note: I hope to heavens your archiving your reviews, but great lost if they were lost.
Regarding the climate, it's entirely possible to have 'heat waves' rising off objects even in frigid conditions. All that's required is a difference in temperature on the interface layer between air and ground, and you'll see them at the right angle (typically less than ten degress viewing). You can frequently see them radiating from actual snow if you look for it on a sunny day.
Thats interesting angle i hadn't thought of. I guess it was always assumed militaries were too paranoid to send large numbers of troops and rare JumpShips through unhabited star systems with risks of losing the ships to do a deep strike against interior targets.
I have to find my old books, reading these cool reviews your writing up, Mendrugo makes me long to re-read them again! Thanks!
Here we have a rare example of true LosTech. Grayson worries that the bandits will have “sonic detectors” that can use computer-controlled filters to eliminate the yowling wind and pick up a whispered conversation. The rules in “A Time of War” for remote sensors cover Heat, Motion, Radar, Seismic, and Trip-Line (infrared, laser, and physical) sensors, but make no mention of sonic detectors. If they were commonplace enough for Periphery bandits to be using, you’d think they’d be part of the standard ruleset, but Operation HOLY SHROUD appears to have erased this technology from existence – both in the fiction and the rules.
Just noticed something I thought you might find interesting: there's an item in DropShips & JumpShips (on page 59) called an ultrasonic detector, and from the description it sounds like it could be the same device.
I’m not sure what the ‘Cis-‘ means in Cis-Peripheral,
It means "This side". The Romans divided Gaul into two parts, Cisalpine Gaul, which was on their side of the Alps; and Transalpine Gaul, which was on the other side. :)
On a different note, if it turns out that the upcoming file covering the REVIVAL Trials is published before you get to the Clan Invasion, would any fiction works in that volume be in this section, or treated as part of the next thread?
(Or to put it another way, is there a precise cut-off point which you will use to end this era and start the next?)
Also, according to this novel's Sarna article, Ardan Sortek refers to the Capellan assault on Stein's Folly "eighteen months ago" at some point in Warrior: En Garde, pinpointing the initial assault at July 3025. However, I have to admit that I wrote this working from a German edition copy of the book... and the German translations weren't always 100% exact. If somebody has an english language PDF copy, they should perhaps conduct a text search and see if they can confirm this.
Eighteen months prior to 8 January 3027 would be 8 July 3025. Since most people aren't precise down to the day when discussing past events, it could easily refer to a June 3025 action.
And Michael's reference to "last year" was made in the first week of 3027; I have no problems assuming he's referring to a 3025 "illness". Again, people aren't that precise when they discuss past events unless they need to be. If he had said "two years" ago, they would have just been weird.
"Planning this for weeks" may refer to a response to the Liao invasion in general, particularly the recapture of Redfield. It is noted at the very beginning of the book that the attack on Stein's Folly had been expected ever since the fall of Redfield, just not so soon.
I admit it's vague, but it's all there is to go on. Plus, the Capellans couldn't have started moving in their captured scientists and setting up the conditioning lab until after the planet was fully secured, so they'd need time to get that up and running.Hmmm... this is a weak plot point in the novel anyways.
What's odd is that the AFFS is only sending three 'Mech regiments backed by a light RCT to face five regiments of McCarron's Armored Cavalry. If the forces staging at Dragon's Field were initially intended to retake Redfield, it doesn't seem like they brought enough firepower to the party to overcome the Big MAC. Thus, I would posit that a separate task force may be staging elsewhere to retake Redfield. Only the fact that the MAC is split between the two worlds makes the three regiment AFFS task force sufficient to carry the day on Stein's Folly.In Pavel Ridzik's first scene the attacking forces (deploying from two Overlords landed at the Steindown port are shown to include elements of the St. Ives Lancers and McCarron's Armored Cavalry
Hanse notes that the Capellans drew off some of their troops because they're "having trouble elsewhere." I wonder what that trouble was, since the Kapteyn Accord should have rendered things quiet on the CC/FWL front. Probes from Taurus or the Magistracy? Independent raids out of Andurien?I've noted elsewhere already that the Concord of Kapteyn didn't do much to pacify the Marik/Liao border, even though it may have stipulated a detente. The Gray Death Legion's campaign in Marik employ against Liao that went on for a year in 3027/early 3028 and culminated in the capture of Sirius V is a big giveaway in this respect, and looking into the matter further I found it spelled out in the Rolling Thunder scenario pack that, despice the Concord, Janos Marik autorized the Rolling Thunder unit to raid Liao space specifically to give Max Liao some of his own medicine. I also recall (but cannot presently cite a reference) a note to the effect that even after signing the Concord Liao and Marik simply fought on, just switching to deniable mercenary assets instead of showing their own colors.
Hmmm... this is a weak plot point in the novel anyways.
I'd argue that the entire (and somewhat weird) medical facility was a mockup and the man Ardan saw there was probably not the real double. I think it boils down to Ardan being set up deliberately to destroy his credibility. He saw what Liao wanted him to see.
I can see no other way to explain why the entire facility would be located on world that has been in Davion hands until a couple of weeks ago (two months on the outside, I think) in the first place, or why Ardan would wake up there unguarded and find an empty facility to snoop around in.
In Pavel Ridzik's first scene the attacking forces (deploying from two Overlords landed at the Steindown port are shown to include elements of the St. Ives Lancers and McCarron's Armored Cavalry
It's implied in the opening chapter that the Liao 'Mech carriers are Overlords exclusively, later described as a "small fleet" of them, each carrying 36 BattleMechs. Which could be anywhere from three to a full five regiments' worth (15) of Overlords.
But in 3025 a battalion was considerd a large force, and a five-regiment attack force is something for groundbreaking actions like Galtor III or Halstead Station. Redfield and Stein's Folly seem to be smaller battles in the bigger picture, which to me strongly implies we're looking on overall perhaps two regiments' worth on troops on the outside, composed of mixed elements from various units.
McCarron's Armored Cavalry in particular was noted to be recuperating from their Long March after 3023 well into 3027, having returned to garrison and strategic reserve duty (according to what I wrote on Sarna but shamefully failed to cite sources for; I think this is straigth from the MAC sourcebook). In this context, their contribution to the Stein's Folly attack may only have been a detachment of company size or so.
I'll address it more fully once we get to those scenes, but I agree that the whole setup makes no sense at all.
I didn't see any specific reference to the St. Ives Armored Cavalry, though since Ridzik was there in person, it wouldn't be a much of a stretch for Stapleton's Iron Hand (from the St. Ives Armored Cavalry) to be there, as his personal unit. The Death Commandos were noted as being there alongside the Big Mac.In Ridzik's first scene on p. 28, it is described how the Fire Lance of an (otherwise unspecified) company of House Liao's St. Ives Armored Cavalry - two Ostrocs, a Catapult and a BattleMaster - disembark from one of the two Overlords at the Steindown port. In the next paragraph, a MAC lance (another BattleMaster, an Archer and two Trebuchets) is mentioned. Quite an impressive lineup in these two lances. Go Liao!
I think the Liao sourcebook says that by 3025, the Big Mac was back to patrolling up and down the Liao/Davion border, spoiling for a fight.
If there are two (maybe three) regiments on Stein's Folly, after some were withdrawn, then the initial invasion must have been at least three or four regiments. Presumably the ones pulled off to deal with other problems didn't go back to Redfield, implying there were more than five regiments involved in the joint Redfield/Stein's Folly offensive. I can see the Big Mac and Death Commandos being used in the initial assault, backed by Confederation Reserve Cavalry units, and then having the Big Mac and Death Commandos pulled away to put out fires elsewhere, leaving just the CRC mooks to hold the planets. Since the AFFS crushed the Stein's Folly garrison, whatever unit it was is probably lost to history, and wasn't listed on the House Liao sourcebook TO&E for the CCAF in 3025.Hm. A later scene seems to suggest the MAC is in fact the core element of the trap that is to be sprung on Stein's Folly so perhaps at least a battalion after all. But of course Davion wouldn't know it's trap, and would not take those units into consideration.
(There's always my pet theory that the Shin Legion was knocking around during the 3rd Succession War, but just got left out of all the reporting. If it was splattered on Stein's Folly in early 3025, and subsequently reconstituted, that would explain its absence from the roster. There's that cryptic reference in the Warrior Trilogy to a Solaris MechJock being a "member of the Lost Legion," that was defeated by House Marik on Shuen Wan. Since the Shin Legion was the only unit in the CCAF with a "Legion" title, and there's never been a good explanation for when/how the unit was formed, I like to imagine that the "Lost Legion" was a disgraced regiment of the Shin Legion.)
On a holotank starmap, Ardan identifies the markers for Emerson, New Cleveland, Ral, Hamlin, and Vincent. Emerson is plotted on the 3025 map as being between Beten Kaitos and Smolensk in the Kathil PDZ, but the others have never been plotted. The FedCom Civil War sourcebook indicates that the AFFS established networks of recharge stations through uninhabited systems to facilitate the dispatch of rapid response forces to repel incursions and to be able to move supplies to the front along hidden routes. The Powers that Be have stated that all inhabited systems are now plotted on the maps, and if it’s not there, it’s not an inhabited system. However, it’s unclear whether this applies to outpost systems, which lack civilian populations and economies but may have a military staging or logistics base. If those are unmarked, then New Cleveland, Ral, Hamlin, Vincent, and Dragon’s Field may be part of the AFFS outpost network in the Crucis and Capellan Marches.There's a good precedent for this in Historical: Reunification War, where the worlds of Granera and Saonara were missing from the 2571 maps of the Inner Sphere published up to that point, but appeared on the Reunification War maps for 2577, with a note in the deployment table pages that both were military staging worlds that later became colonies.
It’s interesting that the ComStar messenger is described as a very young, shy girl, yet her rank is Adept, not Acolyte. Odd that such a wilting flower ascended through the ranks at a young age, and was given the daunting responsibility of delivering messages to the Chancellor.
He could very easily have been delirious and hallucinating. For arguments' sake.
3. My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.They couldn't kill Hanse (yet), because they were still questioning him for personal secrets. I can even imagine that they would have kept him alive for a transition period while the double took over, in case any questions popped up. Having the real Hanse available to answer questions goes a long way to smoothing the transition process.
Fail. Why did the conspirators not immediately kill off the real Hanse and Ardan?
4. Shooting is not too good for my enemies.See above. The basic premise of Liao operations here, for all to make any sense at all, is that controlling Ardan (and Hanse) is better than simply killing them.
Fail. Why wasn't Ardan left tied to a tree with a laser hole between the eyes for insurance?
11 .I will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat.Discrediting him over simply killing him, as it served the doppelgänger plan better.
Fail. What the heck was the point of putting a Hanse-duplicate on Stein's Folly and (maybe) arranging for Ardan to see it?
12 .One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.Snark aside, I'm not sure if this is a viable complaint. Max Liao was (clinically) insane and a totalitarian leader. The overcomplex, overthought and somewhat far-fetched plot by a powerful madman is played totally straight here.
Fail. Average five-year-old children are too young to achieve citizenship, and therefore have no right to be listened to in the Confederation, obviously.
36. I will not imprison members of the same party in the same cell block, let alone the same cell. If they are important prisoners, I will keep the only key to the cell door on my person instead of handing out copies to every bottom-rung guard in the prison.Technically, yes. But I have to question the premise of rule #36. Depending on circumstances, it may make sense to keep them together if it furthers whatever procedures are being implemented that warrant them being kept alive in the first place. Perhaps the questioners thought it would be conductive to their work on Hanse to keep Ardan around.
Fail. Ardan and Hanse locked up together.
50. My main computers will have their own special operating system that will be completely incompatible with standard IBM and Macintosh powerbooks.But those files were only incriminating in the context of what Melissa had learned Karns was doing with Sortek. As you already pointed out, someone must have written this dossier on him and stored it in the computer in the first place.
Fail. Key incriminating files were encrypted, but left intact, and did not prevent the Steiner royal family from reading them.
52. I will hire a team of board-certified architects and surveyors to examine my castle and inform me of any secret passages and abandoned tunnels that I might not know about.It wasn't Liao's castle. It was Davion's. And maybe the secret passages were among those secrets they were still in the process of prying from the real Hanse Davion through interrogation.
Fail. The summer palace on Argyle has secret passages.
61. If my advisors ask "Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?", I will not proceed unless I have a response that satisfies them.Wrong. Liao risked hardly anything at all here. In the big picture, I reckon the costs of the doppelgänger program were insignificant - and there were no negative ramnifications to be feared at all.
Fail. Given that this was a trigger event for Operation RAT, perhaps Max's advisors should have asked that question at some point...
78. I will not tell my Legions of Terror "And he must be taken alive!" The command will be "And try to take him alive if it is reasonably practical."Obviously, given that there was now a plot going on that depended on Ardan playing along. It's arguable if Ardan was even worth the hassle of searching im in the swamps just to kill him. He was useful only if he could be manipulated, but not particularly dangerous otherwise.
Fail. Henrik was instructed to bring Ardan back alive.
99. Any data file of crucial importance will be padded to 1.45MB in size.Makes perfect sense. Those data files must have been Karns' dossier as written by LIC. It was only the extra information Melissa had that made these files important.
Not necessarily a fail, but the "data files of crucial importance" in the Tharkad palace library were encrypted with a code that....hmmm....only the most prolific user of the library had access to.
It's bad enough that I think trying to explain it just legitimizes a sort of (not unfamiliar to BTech) plot problem regarding "he's the main character, we have to keep him alive." The plan is stupid because a not-stupid plan would kill our narrator.;D
Why isn’t anyone using the Stein’s Folly HPG station? We know it has one, since the previous scene on Sian featured a report from the garrison commander via a ComStar courier.
I can see the utility of ComStar maintaining that messages take far longer to get to their destinations than necessary.
Amusingly, Sep is reassured by the fact that the message capsule is pressurized, implying it has not been tampered with by the local ComStar Adept.
Hanse’s surprise at Adept Ara’s knowledge of the marriage provision of the FedCom Treaty is, itself, surprising, since the treaty was brokered under ComStar’s auspices at Hilton Head on Terra
If someone is getting close enough to Hanse to film him in his garden or at his desk, security has been utterly compromised. If someone can get a camera that close, they can get a hold-out pistol that close, and then bye-bye Hanse, hello First Prince Michael Hasek-Davion.
the presence of the holoplayer and discs with the entire plot laid out therein either speaks to massive overconfidence by House Liao in the CCAF’s ability to hold onto Stein’s Folly, or to massive Maskirovka incompetence in not removing or destroying such incriminating evidence. The AFFS sweep teams also seem criminally negligent for not effectively policing up such potential intel while they were booby trapping the facility.
Why move the surgical double to Stein’s Folly and store him in a cryo-tube in a poorly secured medical center in a base on the verge of being evacuated?
*hands Wrangler a Hatamoto Kaeru*I meant during the Succession Wars, but i thank you for this fine webbed footed duckbill Mech! ;D
----- One Week Later -----
Date: May 25, 3025
Location: Galtor III
Title: Charge of the Hussars
Author: Cory Glaberson
Type: Scenario
Synopsis: The first major engagement of the Galtor Campaign pitted the understrength 33rd Avalon Hussars against the 17th Benjamin Regulars. The Hussars are backed by elements of the Dahar Draconis March Militia and the Galtor Irregulars.
The Regulars have 48 ‘Mechs massing 2,835 tons and averaging Veteran experience. (Cyclops, 3 Victors, 3 Awesomes, Atlas, 4 Crusaders, 3 Archers, 6 Dervishes, 4 Orions, JagerMech, Ostsol, Thunderbolt, 4 Phoenix Hawks, 4 Hatchetmen, Assassin, Spider, Wasp, Stinger, 4 Whitworths, 4 Valkyries)
[applause] Thank you for that insightful look into one of our games most storied sourcebooks!
Are you planning look at individual pieces of history in the book? The Battle History sections are pretty remarkable.
No there wasn't. It was a scenario in the Black Widow book. Or maybe in The Spider and the Wolf. I forget which.
I wonder how the stories for Shrapnel were assigned. Did they have a collection of art, and ask authors to make up a story to go along with the pictures, or did they commission art to go along with the stories?
I’m unclear about the FWL troop composition. In an earlier chapter, Hansi referred to her “ships,” and to her “reinforced battalion.” No single 3025-era DropShip can carry a reinforced battalion (the Excalibur can, technically, but only a combined arms force, not a reinforced 'Mech battalion. The Hawk’s Shadow appears to be an Overlord, since she deploys three 'Mech companies. I wonder, through, where the rest of her reinforced battalion and the other DropShip is.We know the Hawk's Shadow isn't Hansi's only DropShip so we have no clue as to its type. The wording isn't clear with regards to her first deployment; we aren't explicitly told if she dropped or not. It would seem an unneccessary risk. In any case, nowhere does it say the three companies were dropped only from the Hawk's Shadow. I see no indication that it might be any particular class.
He could have also been in the Draconis March to establish relationships with March's movers and shakers. After all, if there's going to be a trouble spot once Michael is in charge, it's going to come from there. Sohe goes and gets some face time with a few people, feeling them out, and deciding who can he use and who might have to meet with an "accident" after taking the throne.
Craig
Interesting. I hadn't quite considered it before, but that may go a long way towards explaining the odd notes in earlier stories and scenarios where Hasek is shown trying to micro-manage the Kell Hounds and Fox's Teeth on the Combine front. If he feels his control over the Capellan March is secure, his logical next move would be to shore up support in the other two Marches. Clearly, he made substantial progress suborning Hanse's staff on Argyle in the Crucis March, but would also have needed to make inroads into the Draconis March.Speaking of Aaron, did you cover him? He had rather interesting origin story, I think i read his story in the original House Book. Being a tanker, lead a his platoon (4 tanks) fight the Combine on Rio in all-combat vehicle regiment. He barely came back without his legs, but with a wife who was fellow tanker. His father went from cold to warm. I think it was appealing of character origin, him being tank platoon commander in non-BattleMech combat formation.
It's too bad Duke Aaron Sandoval didn't get much page-time in this era. It might have been interesting to see what he thought about Hasek-Davion making so many political trips into his turf. The House Davion sourcebook describes Hasek as "even more clever than Duke Sandoval." It also says "Unlike Duke Michael, who is uninterested, Duke Sandoval takes his role as Minister seriously. He actively rules over the bureaucracy of the Draconis March, and can usually be counted on to show up for serious High Council meetings." Sandoval's profile says he's a staunch supporter of the alliance with the Lyran Commonwealth, and will do anything to promote the alliance.
Most likely, with such a profile, the conspirators' next step would have to have been to undercut Sandoval, since he would pull out all the stops to prevent the Suns from going to war with the Lyrans.
I see, i guess his origin mixed up. I think it may depend on what is the new source. I think someone in FASA era goofed and missed his origin from the House Book.
Not necessarily. TRO:3026 gives a rundown on replacement limbs, and says Type V (myomer) are visually nearly identical to regular limbs, and are fully functional. Type IV are robotic prosthetics that need to be programmed, and provide general utility, but not the full range of use.I guess my problem is that he was a Tank Officer. I just found it odd, was there any indications he why he would suddenly become a MechWarrior? I have look at House Book again, it didn't say he wasn't able to do it. But he certain didn't become one. Tankers were not long-lived people given how terribly easy it is for them be schooled by BattleMechs. He was using a Partisan Tank, which should put him at range verse getting up close with Liao controlled Marauder. It's possible because he ran away from at 16, straight into the military as non-commissioned officer would keep him from BattleMech.
The plot hole comes from Warrior: En Garde talking about the Type IV as the best available, while TRO:3026 (published a year earlier, in universe) says Type V are expensive, but still possible, and restore full use.
The rules don't generally apply to high nobles in the Successor States. If Aaron's father wanted his son to be a MechWarrior, what AFFS academy is going to refuse him?True, I thought it was more in align physically and desire to. Its uncovered ground what happened in between his elevation into assuming responsibilities for the March, since while he was tanker he wasn't aware his older brothers had died. For fiction point of view, it would had been interesting for a Succession War era leader to be non-MechWarrior, yet able command important post of FedSun March. Everything typical leaders are MechWarriors most of the time. I think tankers have bad rap, since Caleb Davion appeared since he couldn't become a MechWarrior and became a tanker due to his .... mental challenges.
True, I thought it was more in align physically and desire to. Its uncovered ground what happened in between his elevation into assuming responsibilities for the March, since while he was tanker he wasn't aware his older brothers had died. For fiction point of view, it would had been interesting for a Succession War era leader to be non-MechWarrior, yet able command important post of FedSun March. Everything typical leaders are MechWarriors most of the time. I think tankers have bad rap, since Caleb Davion appeared since he couldn't become a MechWarrior and became a tanker due to his .... mental challenges.It's probable Aaron had mechwarrior training before he ran away from home - maybe not formally but 'Mech training is what the smart noble family gives their kids to help them get ahead of life.
I don't want to distract from reviews, so i'll end this conversation here.
The Hussar could have been a Royal. That would be enough to be at least slightly fearsome, with damn near four times the armor of the standard model, as well as an ER Large and very advanced electronics systems, especially for the 4th. It also handily outruns everything save for the Hermes I and the Dart in 3025. That'd be enough to make me worry as a slightly incompetent Marik commander.
That sounded like a fun scenario you ran, Mendrugo! I'd love find myself playing in something like that.
At the Castle Brian siege line, Colonel Hanse is enraged as she tracks the 8th Lyran Guards en route to an LZ between her and Treacher's company.
I think you meant Regulars here?
If the Eighth are associated with the Periphery regions of the Commonwealth, could they perhaps at this point have been located somewhere on the periphery border close to the intersection of the Circinus Federation, Free Worlds League and Commonwealth and still be in range to make it to Dixie? Somewhere like Poulsbo, or maybe Timbiqui, if not Cavanaugh II? They might've already been on notice to move in case there were problems at Cavanaugh II.
Quick Question. This isn't a canon event. Not saying it shouldn't be included in this review, but it could confuse new people. Why put the story in your canon fiction review list?
Point of order:
Far Country was expressly confirmed as fully canonical, with the caveat that everything after the misjumps will never te-connect with the known BT universe and thus may as well never have happened.
Empires Aflame was expressly confirmed non-canonical, except for the "main universe" lead-up to the misjump.
Btw Mendrugo I think you meant to post that in the Star League era fiction thread...
I wondered if that thing from the comics could have been done in Battletech stats. Thats impressive to see in ATOW rendition.
Mendrugo did you use ATOW Companion to make the biomech?
As for the ER Large Laser, there have been prototypes of clan level tech floating around since Operation Klondike. Khan Jorgensson would have had the rank to obtain two, if he wished.
I guess the artillery people will remain unknown. I would wager that Vordermark cut deal with Dark Caste who would equally be eager to blast both parties with little incentive. Bandit/Dark Caste existed at some scales per world.
Thou it's possible it was a Watch unit that was actually doing black ops. I would be little surprised since Watch wasn't as we know them here and now.
Ugly situation, i doubt we'll have new stories done that way. That's not way to run military in any form, perception of a different age? Least the story not canon, as far i can tell.
How do you regard Mercenary units? I doubt throwing a knife into the head of one of the officers and announcing "I'm in command!" is a typical change of command for a mercenary unit. It's more in line with a bad clan than anything else.
Disavowed? I'm honestly not sure if Herb even knew the Blackthorne comics existed. In any case, his definition of Canon is pretty clear and these comics don't meet the criteria.
Though I would call them "not canon" (in the sense of apocrypha), instead of Non-Canon (which gives the impression of a positive rejection as in "this never happened" versus leaving the question unanswered).
I think that's a pretty fair read of the situation. I've included them because they were intended to be canon at the time of their production, similar to BattleTechnology Magazine and the Malibu comics.Would it be possible to make note of their status when it comes to canon. Without warning signs, people are going not realize that some of these things are in the gray area when it comes to canon statue.
FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEM
A fire on a ship must be stopped quickly, not only because tire will damage the ship, but also because the large amounts of toxic chemicals generated can quickly overload a ship's life support system. For these reasons, all space vessels carry fire suppression systems, consisting of an array of pipes that lead to every room and corridor on the ship. If a fire breaks out, containment doors automatically seal off the burning room or corridor, and then the pipes release a blast of halon, carbon dioxide, or some other fire ****** into the room.
The mechanism that triggers the system is a series of heat sensors and smoke detectors, which are also tied into the environmental monitor panels. When these units are triggered, the fire suppression system switches on, a warning bell sounds, and a fire detection panel on the bridge indicates the location of the fire.
All spacefaring vessels carry an integral means of generating and/or purifying air to sustain their crew and passengers. Most vessels contain numerous "scrubbing" systems on each deck that use mechanical and chemical methods to remove carbon dioxide and other potentially harmful gasses and compounds from the air. The physiological processes of the ship's crew and the routine functioning of its operating systems produce these harmful elements, and so without such scrubbers these elements would rapidly accumulate and render a vessel uninhabitable. Human accessways and dedicated atmospheric ducting provides the means of circulating scrubbed air throughout a ship.
Disavowed? I'm honestly not sure if Herb even knew the Blackthorne comics existed. In any case, his definition of Canon is pretty clear and these comics don't meet the criteria.
Though I would call them "not canon" (in the sense of apocrypha), instead of Non-Canon (which gives the impression of a positive rejection as in "this never happened" versus leaving the question unanswered).
I'm seeing a trend (well nigh a trope) in Clan-themed fiction that much of the dramatic impetus comes from the central character's failure at a crucial juncture (usually the Trial of Position) and subsequent existence on the margins of the Clans' regimented society. In Fall From Glory, Andery Kerensky failed his test to remain on active duty. In Way of the Clans, a Jade Falcon fails his Trial of Position. Tears of Blood follows the experience of a Blood Spirit ristar who fails a crucial test and is washed out, finding redemption as a ProtoMech pilot. In Whispering Death, a Nova Cat is unfairly banished into the Bandit Caste. Whereas most of the Warrior Caste followed a cookie-cutter existence of sibko -> Warrior -> either death/glory or solahma, the square pegs are the ones that seem to catch the authors' interest most often.Just to mention another prominent Clan character: Nova Cat warrior George from the German-only Bear Cycle (http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Bear_Cycle) of novels has his Trial of Position overrun by bandits while the trial is ongoing. In the chaos he destroys one enemy, unsure what is wrong with his ToP, before witnessing the opening cinematics of the MechWarrior 2 game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X3GD0UnBCk) and having his own 'Mech destroyed in the explosion of Alpha Assault (George's callsign is Gamma Cadet). As the only surviving cadet, he is ultimately considered to have (barely) passed his ToP for destroying one bandit outside of the actual trial. Apparently this decision only came after a lot of debate, and George is merely assigned a Jenner IIC in the aftermath instead of a frontline OmniMech.
Vicente is a cousin of Reinhard and Skylar Orloff, and his father (who I believe is unnamed?) still had some political pull but was removed from the line of succession due to estrangement or some unforgivable slight. In the story, you might notice that the characters all refer to the head of the duchy as "Duke Orloff," not "Earl Orloff."From Orloffian perspective, an earl can't head up a duchy: it'd be called the "Earldom of Orloff" if that were the case. So Reinhard and Skylar style themselves as "Duke," much to the nobility's dismay, and Vicente's father, technically an earl under Reinhard despite the estrangement, still has the Captain-General's ear, and thus so does his son—hence why he was invited to dine with Janos Marik in 2991. A lot of legitimate dukes in the FWL don't take kindly to Reinhard's arrogance for using the title, so when Reinhard is killed by a Maskirovka assassination (which was designed to give the CCAF leverage for the attacks on Tsinghai and a failed thrust into the Duchy of Orloff) and Skylar the buffoon takes over the duchy as "Duke," Reinhard's enemies seize their chance to exert political pressure on the duchy and get "Duke" Skylar stripped from political power (or assassinated by rivals, perhaps?). Then Vicente's father is installed as the proper "Earl of Orloff."
Mendrugo, are you going to mix in the Starter book: Sword and Dragon? Sorenson are also cover in there, it may fix some discrepancies that are popping up in your reviews.
- In 3017, while "on loan" to the Lyran Commonwealth, Redjack Ryan's pirate force was ordered to garrison Fianna. They sacked the cities, enslaved the populace, and destroyed many industries, including a fusion power plant, which poisoned half the planet's atmosphere, killing millions.If you want to read Ryan's side of the Fianna Massacre story, may I refer you to the perpetrator's flashback narration in my BC story Trial of Faith. It's not quite so all black and white, and besides, in this one case at least the guy who pulled the trigger had bounty hunters on his tail for pretty much the rest of his life. :)
Thus, I side with Beyda in feeling that Rix should have known better about the reality of warfare. (Though that last example is less warfare than putting a Kyotan Armor Bear to guard the henhouse.)
If you want to read Ryan's side of the Fianna Massacre story, may I refer you to the perpetrator's flashback narration in my BC story Trial of Faith. It's not quite so all black and white, and besides, in this one case at least the guy who pulled the trigger had bounty hunters on his tail for pretty much the rest of his life. :)
Ironically, factchecking shot down the reactor being responsible, even though I had essentially just quoted previous canon and deliberately kept the details vague (because it didn't make too much sense). In the final version, it was a stockpile of SL era chemical weapons, with a damaged reactor somehow "exacerbating" the problem.
Lordy Lordy that a busy battlefield. Was this meant to be played all at once or in fragments? I can see couple weeks (when you have free time i mean) of playing this thing.
Hanse's description of FedSuns meddling in FWL affairs as "vicious rumors" targeted at Ardan also seems to be a bit of a handwave.If anyone needs confirmation that this meddling indeed happened (beyond Sortek's complaints in The Sword and the Dagger), ComStar is discussing Davion financial suport for insurgents in the FWL as matter of fact between themselves, namely between Primus Tiepolo and Precentor Waterly, in the prologue to Warrior: En Garde.
Ground Assault Air Squadron: 6 Sabres
(This seems a bit underweight for a "ground assault" unit - light fighters are generally used for fast intercepts of other fighters, while heavy fighters are better for ground assaults, since the targets aren't fast enough to evade your attacks)
This is a straight-up set-piece deathmatch. The AFFS side is likely to be scattered by the drop, but the Combine's disruption should give it the time it needs to regroup and use its superior numbers. If possible, the AFFS player should try to keep the fight away from the Electrophore, since its heavy firepower could tip the balance.
The Combine troops should deploy in a tight group around the Electrophore. Use it as a firebase, with your fire support units in the rear ranks and close-in fighters in the fore, and make any AFFS units entering your kill zone feel like they're putting their faces into a blender. By massing your troops, those that fail the disruption check can be supported by those that succeed.
Remember back in the days this was written, the rules for CAS ordnance-loads were based around available thrust, meaning that light ASFs were kings (even if they didn't always return to base after the sortie, given how BF1 worked). And DropShips, again in BF1, tended to get slaughtered by 'Mechs when caught on the ground.
I love this thread, by the way, and am always keen to see your insights.
Given how the mechanics of interstellar warfare have been subsequently developed, the Marduk "blockade" of Galtor III doesn't work. Not only could reinforcements stage on either Harpster or Deshler, but they could use uninhabited systems to reach Galtor III. They could even use the Marduk system's jump points for transit, since there's no need to actually touch down on Marduk itself.
The existence of Moroushi's Independent Assault Battalion raises some interesting questions about the DCMS TO&E. While no independent battalions are listed in the House Kurita sourcebook, they clearly exist - not just Moroushi's, but also Duke Ricol's household troops engaged on Verthandi, and probably others. My guess is that Moroushi is a Combine noble who maintains a private army.
As long as each noble maintains the force out of their own finances, doesn't grow it beyond a certain size, consents to ISF scrutiny, and deploys it per the commands of the DCMS high command or at least the local District Warlord, the Coordinator is probably in favor of such formations. (Not only that, but such "noble regiments" could serve as a way to surprise enemies with forces not on the official TO&Es, like the Ghost Regiments in the War of 3039 - though with those the yakuza provided the manpower while the DCMS provided the equipment, with help from ComStar.)
Harpster and Deshler might be too out of the way if speed were important, and transiting uninhabited systems may be considered riskier than retaking Marduk. I think you're right that groundside facilities are somehow important to staging a relief force, though; that could easily rule out other options without having to invoke the 'Mech factory.
The main Kurita attack had scattered Finnegan's Battalion, then swung right to trap Seymour's Battalion against the sea. Two hours later...no word came from Seymour's Battalion. No reliable reports on the destruction of Seymour's Battalion exist. Kurita records are frustratingly sparse, and none of Seymour's MechWarriors survived.
Isn't Mercenary unit generally referred to as Mercenary Company as in business not necessary size of a force?
Quinton asks if it's wise for Chiba to come out to the front in person, since they're still under fire, and the Lancers Legion trooper responds "Only if you think House Marik is dangerous."
Nagumo's uniform is described as "the severe, utilitarian black of a high-ranking officer of the Draconis Combine." As with other early Keith books, this is contradicted by the House Kurita sourcebook, which indicates that all Combine officers wear the white uniform with red striping. Of note, Nagumo's uniform bears kana symbols spelling out "Kurita" and "Duke Ricol," which would imply that he's part of Duke Ricol's household forces, which are subservient to the will of the Coordinator.
So does this mean Verthandi isn't on ComStar's grid in 3025?
The entry onto Verthandi is one of the major battle sequences from Mercenary's Star, showcasing both space and ground combat.
Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents expressly spelled out that the Phobos was a Danais modified to Trojan specs; the Phobos is even mentioned in the writeup as an example for Trojans trying to mimick Unions.
Erudin notes that the rebels have been fighting Kuritan soldiers on Verthandi for nearly ten years, which contradicts the notation in "Blockade Runner" that the revolt started in 3023.
I think this, more than anything else, is what establishes the Draconis Combine as the primary "black hat" faction of the 3025 setting. Based on House Kurita's philosophies, a total victory by the Combine would result, long term, in an Inner Sphere of ecologically devastated, uninhabitable worlds, where subhuman drones scrabble for survival in poisoned landscapes.
<snip>
This is the message that Morgan Kell hammered home in "Not the Way the Smart Money Bets," forecasting that the Succession Wars would result in the collapse of society (as seen on Pencader in "Straw Man").
In an environment with satellites, what's the point of having slightly faster outriders on the ground?
Keith apparently changed his backstory for Carlyle's Commandos between "Decision at Thunder Rift" and "Mercenary's Star." Whereas numerous references implied the Commandos were an independent lance-sized unit of the LCAF at the time they were assigned to Trellwan, Grayson's recollections here explicitly described as an independent BattleMech mercenary company.
I suppose from a combined arms perspective, Carlyle's Commandos qualified as a combined arms company, with one 'Mech lance, one armor lance, and four infantry platoons. But having a Leopard to carry all that around implies that "Lance" was their defining structural parameter.
Arguing against the 3015 timeframe is one character's musing that "perhaps another war is in the offing," since the 3rd Succession War was still going strong in 3015, but had just ended (with the conclusion of the Galtor Campaign) in 3025.
It seems odd that Ridzik would refer to recent years as being "relatively peaceful" on the Capellan/FedSuns front. 3025 has seen heavy fighting for Redfield and Stein's Folly. The AFFS attacked Epsilon Eridani and Fletcher in 3024. Marshigama's Legionnaires raided New Aragon in 3024. McCarron's Long March took place from 3022 - 3023. That being said, Chancellor Maximilian met with Duke Michael Hasek-Davion in 3022
From what I remember of the novel, both the Phobos and the Deimos were stripped down Unions. (The stats cited by Mendrugo bear that out pretty clearly.) It's weird that a later sourcebook would turn the concept of "demilitarized Union" into a whole separate class of ships.Nope, both ships were initially explicitly described as mere freighters; in Decision at Thunder Rift Renfred Tor and Lori Kalmar independently of each other narrate how the ships were waylaid in a transit system and crudely upgraded with bolted-on weapons. In Mercenary's Star, painting the Phobos up as a fake Union more or less was what got the Kurita spy's attention on Galatea in the first place.
Expanded, but not contradicted: the Commandos were an LCAF lance on Trellwan, and a mercenary unit when he was a child. Given that Grayson also refers to his unit (both the House lance and the merc unit) as "the regiment," I doubt that "company" or "regiment" were meant as explicit force sizes.Again, different sources attributed to Keith are inconsistent. The first book leaves the question open with implications Carlyle's Commandos were a Steiner house unit, while the second and later books looking back explicitly call them mercs. Herb Beas made a canonical FASA two-step ruling as explained here (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/ask-the-lead-developers/conflicting-info-on-carlyle%27s-commandos/).
On the other hand, when the Gray Death Legion had two companies of 'Mechs, it was always referred to as "combined arms regiment" rather than a short battalion.
I'm pretty sure the 3rd War wasn't recognized to have "ended" until the 4th war actually started, and the term "Succession War" shouldn't prevent major conflicts along a single border from being described as wars in their own right. At the very least there's the Marik Civil War, and IIRC the Dragoons' conflict with the Combine was referred to as a "private war."The end of the 3rd SW was arbitrarily, but nevertheless canonically noted down as the year 3025 even though nothing special happened in that year.
That seems reasonable. Both it and Trell are relatively small and peripheral; I wouldn't be surprised if other such worlds also lack HPGs.Trell seems to be an insignificant world in the 3020s, but according to the maps in Handbook: House Steiner, Trell I was the administrative capital of the Trellshire province of the Tamar Pact from at least 2822 through til 3025. It seems unlikely that one of the two/three provincial capitals of the Tamar Pact - the others being Tamar and Camlann in 2822, Tamar and Orkney in 2864, and Tamar in 3025 - would lack an HPG, because that would make it very difficult for it to effectively administrate anything offworld.
according to the maps in Handbook: House Steiner, Trell I was the administrative capital of the Trellshire province of the Tamar Pact from at least 2822 through til 3025.
Nope, both ships were initially explicitly described as mere freighters; in Decision at Thunder Rift Renfred Tor and Lori Kalmar independently of each other narrate how the ships were waylaid in a transit system and crudely upgraded with bolted-on weapons. In Mercenary's Star, painting the Phobos up as a fake Union more or less was what got the Kurita spy's attention on Galatea in the first place.
<snip>
3200 tons of mass. This stat block was then finally named as the Trojan variant of the Danais cargo ship twenty years later.
AeroTech gave us the Verthandi breakthrough scenario with additional stats for those so far unnamed freighters "outwardly resembling" a Union,
Again, different sources attributed to Keith are inconsistent.
The first book leaves the question open with implications Carlyle's Commandos were a Steiner house unit, while the second and later books looking back explicitly call them mercs. Herb Beas made a canonical FASA two-step ruling as explained here (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/ask-the-lead-developers/conflicting-info-on-carlyle%27s-commandos/).
The end of the 3rd SW was arbitrarily, but nevertheless canonically noted down as the year 3025 even though nothing special happened in that year.
Then that book is in error. The Atlas in the back of House Steiner: The Lyran Commonwealth (FASA 1621) says Twycross (with a class B station) is the capital of Trellshire in 3025. You may be right that Trell I used to have an HPG, but that kind of loss fits first two succession wars better than the third.Canonically, new trumps old, and Handbook: House Steiner is the more recent of the two publications. It may be worth posing an Ask The Writer question to confirm which is correct, but the default should be the later publication unless errata has been raised to confirm otherwise.
From House Kurita: The Draconis Combine pdf (FASA 1620, emphasis mine):
"The basic color for the senior officer’s uniform is black, and
it follows the same design as the officer’s service branch. For
example, an Infantry General wears a black standard Kurita
infantry uniform. Unlike uniforms of the other Successor States,
Kurita uniforms have few trappings. Medals and decorations are
worn only on the dress uniform.
The chief component of the senior officer’s uniform is the
high-collared black tunic. On each shoulder are the black-on-red
dragon symbol of the Draconis Combine and gold katakana
symbols describing House Kurita and the officer’s Military District
Warlord. These are the only touches of color on the uniform
besides the rank insignia, which is worn on the uniform’s left
collar."
Removing equipment without replacing it could easily leave a ship lighter than it started; and a demilitarized Union could easily serve as a freighter and then have weapons bolted back on. That tells us nothing, whereas Mercenary's Star shows pretty explicitly that its only the lack of weapons which distinguishes the Phobos' hull from a Union's hull.Yet the Phobos and Deimos are consistently described as refitted cargo haulers in the novels. Granted, this does not rule out the freighters having been stripped-down Unions in the first place, and later publications frequently refer to Union-class ships named Phobos and Deimos.
If the Phobos were a different class entirely, we should expect expert observers to note obvious structural differences, like the arc of its hull, placement of bay doors, size and placement of thrusters, and so on.This has all been adressed. May I refer you to the writeup for the Danais/Trojan classes in Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents. I think it does even mention that the Danais class was based on the venerable Union.
"What was odd about that vessel?
There! It was difficult to see in the orange-dim light of Norn, but the vessel was rotating slightly, and the play of shadow against the hull cried out to Nagumo's experienced eye. That DropShip was no Union class. The particle projection cannons normally mounted on bow and flanks were missing. Paint had been artfully applied to imitate the weapons' shadows, but now that the ship had rolled, the angle of light made the disguise less convincing. There should be autocannons, too, but the vessel had none."
I could believe that there's a class whose hull resembles the Union's close enough to fool trained observers, but it strains credulity to think such a class (the Danais) doesn't somehow originate with the Union.
(Also: they didn't paint the ship as a fake Union until after they lifted off from Galatea.)
My copy of AeroTech has four scenarios ("Close, But No cigar," "Scramble for Your Life," "Scenario Three" and "Scenario Four"), none of which mention Verthandi or include ship stats.Whoops. Looks like another change in the German edition then. The same scenario (Blockade Runner) is found in the Gray Death Legion scenario pack though. It describes the Phobos as "Outwardly, the Phobos is similar to a Union Class DropShip. In fact, she is a converted freight-haul shell with the following stats:"
Keith could refer to the unit as a lance, company and regiment within a single paragraph and remain consistent, depending on what exactly each term refers to. The Lance could refer to the 'Mech Lance; the company to a combined arms company comprising the 'Mech Lance plus infantry; and regiment to whatever House regiment the lance was detached from, to whatever merc regiment it used to belong to, or as an abstract ideal unrelated to size.Neither the unit's size nor composition nor allegiance of Carlyle's Commandos is clearly given in the available source material. Even with Keith's name on it, the descriptions change a lot. I feel this is a moot point though as we have a canonical ruling/clarification on the matter. And it works for me.
The Commandos are referred to as a Commonwealth garrison lance, have a Steiner fist painted on their dropship (with the unit's patches on the 'Mech doors), their next duty station is Tharkad, and they've apparently served on Tharkad before - the implications are pretty unambiguous. Since Mercenary's Star only refers to them as mercs in Grayson's childhood, Herb's "two-step" there is superfluous; it also breaks continuity with Keith's use of "combined arms [unit size]."
Whoops. Looks like another change in the German edition then.
It may be worth posing an Ask The Writer question to confirm which is correct.
Thanks for the clarification. Looking into it, I see that my mistaken impression was that the dress uniform (the white with red accents) was the main uniform - reinforced by the fact that until yesterday, the black senior uniform had never been visually depicted - just the dress whites.
Most recently, the Commandos have been involved in raids on Redfield and Stein's Folly.
As the briefing commences, an aide announces the arrival of the Field Marshal of the AFFS, and in walks the mysterious red-head – Hanse Davion.
Notes: Interestingly, Dana describes Hanse as being the Prince of the Federated Suns and her liege, as well as being “the Field Marshal,” the only one in the AFFS.
This isn’t quite accurate, as I understand it. The First Prince holds the rank of “Supreme Marshal of the AFFS,” while the Prince’s Champion has the role of Marshal of the Armies. Herb Beas has confirmed that the official date of Ian Davion's death is October 21, 3013, rather than the November 21, 3013 date presented in HTP: Mallory's World. This allows the original chronology of Irreplaceable to remain unchanged.
Have you finally returned from Tajikstan, then?
I found it odd that Elazar would consider the "romanticized modern day samurai" ethos to be passe in 3025, only to find it reawakened in himself by Bernard's challenge. The Military Coordination Office publishes a monthly tactics manual called "Wisdom of the Samurai." Students in all military academies learn the ways of the samurai, and students are expected to live up to the impossible standards of honor and duty. Some Kurita officers go so far as to put haiku in their uniforms to please opposing generals if captured, hearkening back to a comparable samurai tradition in ancient Japan.
Perhaps Elazar was just burned out on the whole samurai ethos. After having samurai ideals pounded into him at the academy, he may have become harshly disillusioned after seeing how poorly the reality of life in the DCMS during the late Third Succession War corresponded to those ideals, especially with schemers like Grieg Samsonov rising to positions of power and authority.
Elazar's hunger for an honorable one-on-one duel shows just how much Combine culture influenced the Clans. Aleksandr Kerensky came of age during the Hidden War of honor duels between "ronin" and SLDF gunslingers - one that the SLDF endorsed wholeheartedly.
PS: I see you're in DC now; if you ever swing down to Richmond, there's a store in Midlothian (a subarb) that we play battletech every other saturday at. if you're ever in the Richmond area (whether on Saturday or not) shoot me a message, let's grab a beer or something! O0
Given how this was arguably the first novels ever written, i can see Mr. Keith making mistake or three by our view point from the future. I do wonder if his first portrayal of his improvised 'Mech regiment being so heavy man power and combined arms is better echoing of how tough times were in this bleak setting Third Succession War. Where 'Mechs were rare and incredibly power robotic vehicles of destruction, where lance of them would be accompanied by battalion worth of infantry.
Man power is cheap in comparison, but BattleMechs were the Kings of the Battlefield, thus symbol to be feared.
This chapter represents the first appearance of DEST in the BattleTech fiction (not chronologically, but in terms of publication date, since DEST 1 appears in "Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"), and this scene does an excellent job of defining DEST lethality.It may be worth noting that the numbering seems odd. Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight gave us the first two DEST teams, numbered One and Two. Far Country, set almost 600 years later, features DEST 6654. This seems to suggest eleven DEST teams on average are put on missions per year. The one in the book, curiously, is DEST number 4. Maybe the numbering isn't counting individual teams or missions after all.
Notes: Nagumo is clearly a soft touch by Kuritan administrator standards. Other stories from this era have had Combine governors ordering street merchants skinned alive and their families sold into slavery for failing to have a vending permit, and Nagumo is highly understanding about Kevlavic's repeated failure to bring down the mercenary commander.Disagree. This is the same Nagumo who had a village burnt to the ground with its inhabitants at the beginning of the book just to prove a point, and it's suggested that it was his heavy-handed attempts to put down the insurrection that fanned the flames to the point where the rebels hired the GDL.
It may be worth noting that the numbering seems odd. Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight gave us the first two DEST teams, numbered One and Two. Far Country, set almost 600 years later, features DEST 6654. This seems to suggest eleven DEST teams on average are put on missions per year. The one in the book, curiously, is DEST number 4. Maybe the numbering isn't counting individual teams or missions after all.
Disagree. This is the same Nagumo who had a village burnt to the ground with its inhabitants at the beginning of the book just to prove a point, and it's suggested that it was his heavy-handed attempts to put down the insurrection that fanned the flames to the point where the rebels hired the GDL.
Look at Nagumo's situation: He needs results, or Ricol will have his head - quite literally. And Kevlavic is the most competent officer Nagumo has, apparently. Nagumo desperately needs Kevlavic and cannot really do anything beyond throwing a few threats in his direction. Kevlavic probably knows this.
The ComStar sourcebook indicates that ComStar had re-connected all the worlds of the Inner Sphere to the HPG network by the 1st or 2nd Succession War
I don't think that's true. At least, I've not yet found any remarks to that effect.
MechWarrior 1st edition only counts 450 "inhabited worlds" in the Inner Sphere, though. Trellwan and Verthandi may not be populous enough to be counted in that number.ya not enough cash, not enough people to educate "brainwash" to join comstar
MechWarrior 1st edition only counts 450 "inhabited worlds" in the Inner Sphere, though. Trellwan and Verthandi may not be populous enough to be counted in that number.
What book does this scenario come from? The MAC one? I didn't think Rolling Thunder cross pollinated to another book. I love the Thunder. :D
Another sign that the writing in this text was done in the early days are a few left-behind references to "battledroids," which was the term used for BattleMechs until Lucasfilm's "cease and desist" letter arrived.As far as I was told, there was never a C&D letter. Lucasfilm had "Droid" trademarked, and Weisman and Babcock hoped to publish a Battledroids game in the Star Wars setting. This fell through - they didn't make a deal with Lucasfilm after all, and at that point they renamed Battledroids to BattleTech (possibly to avoid a C&D letter).
I'm really glad that Handbook: House Kurita included both a map of the Rasalhague Principality as-was and some more specific detail on the Dieron Federation. One of the things I've always been interested in is the plethora of small statelets that existed after the Terran Alliance contracted, and the region later occupied by the Draconis Combine seemed to be a really fertile ground for being seeded with little groupings of worlds based around the half-dozen or so minor regional powers Shiro Kurita either successfully cozened or conquered.
The map of the Combine at the founding (when it switched from the Alliance of Galedon to the Draconis Combine) was great (and matched one sourcebook description of the Combine as "a sinister octopus, stretching it tentacles across the stars"). However, I would desperately have loved to see a map that showed the territories claimed by the pre-Combine states other than Rasalhague. What systems were held by the Ozawa Mercantile Association? By the Azami Brotherhood? By the Dieron Federation and its fellow mini-powers?I'd love to have a high-quality copy of that map, if you've got one available? One where I could read the system names...
I made my own version (nowhere close to canon, since several of the powers shown here didn't exist simultaneously) based on available information supplemented by best guesses, but I'd love to see an official version.
Most of these were published at the end of 3025 (the Davion book was delayed until March 3028).
Corporate profiles list major weapons manufacturers, with one state-owned bank and a medical supply firm for variety.
Barbara Liao approved of Kerensky's struggle, but withheld support because the Federated Suns and Free Worlds League were already doing so, and she didn't want to help out her hated neighbors. This makes Barbara look very petty, but also exposes Adal Corvin as a purveyor of falsehoods, since the FWL sourcebook notes that Kenyon Marik went out of his way to hinder the SLDF during the war.
Circa 3025, the Confederation has 5 Commonalities, 43 Duchies, X Warrens, and 210 Demenses, with a total of 400 inhabited planets. The map shows that the 6+ worlds/duchy is the exception, rather than the rule
The TO&E and industry table indicate that Sirius is a lot more important to the Confederation than later source material made it out to be. With a major 'Mech factory there garrisoned by four 'Mech battalions, and being the headquarters for the Ministry of Development (the highest funded ministry), how did the battalion-sized Gray Death Legion manage to conquer it just a few years later?
The math never really worked out for me vis-a-vis the Servitors. <snip> during the whole of the Third Succession War, the Capellan Confederation only conquered and kept one world. Are that many kids flunking civics?
I've scanned a picture of the Minister of Economics.
Notes: Honestly, I’m with Akuma here. An enemy pilot of great skill has just exposed himself in the process of wiping out an entire company of your army, and you fail to eliminate him as a threat? What about your giri to the Combine, Tetsuhara? Or if not to the Combine, at least to your fellow soldiers whom this enemy will go on to kill.While leaving him be is not really the right course of action, killing would be far, far worse. Apart from pissing off the Dragoons it's actually illegal, doing so would expose you to civil murder charges at the very minimum.
The Archer pilot is, of course, Jaime Wolf. Tetsuhara’s decision to spare his life will have massive consequences for the course of history for the entire Inner Sphere.
Sorry for the late reply but something I really need to add hereWhile leaving him be is not really the right course of action, killing would be far, far worse. Apart from pissing off the Dragoons it's actually illegal, doing so would expose you to civil murder charges at the very minimum.
Can you clarify the legal basis for this? The Dragoons are engaged in an invasion of a Combine world. If my guess about the identity of the attackers in "A Cover of Paint" is correct, they also tried to capture the Coordinator's heir, Theodore. Jaime has just killed dozens of DCMS armor crewmen, and is momentarily overheated and unable to defend himself, but is nonetheless actively engaged in hostilities against the Combine. What Combine court would bring civil murder charges against any Combine soldier who slew Jaime, a Lyran mercenary?Jamie is defenseless and unable to act and in fact could not even refuse to surrender, and technically THAT battle is over. Note that civil charges are the lowest level of punishment he could face, performing that act could well be a war crime. For another example of this sort of thing, look at how the feud between the Dragoons and Wacco Rangers started, or rather the C* hearing on the events that started it.
The Dragoons might well be pissed, but they're Clanners, and dying gloriously in battle is sort of their thing. They really got pissed when Anton arrested Joshua and had him killed, but that wasn't battle, that was betrayal. They also went Feral when Wayne Waco killed Jaime Wolf in one-on-one combat, but that also wasn't an honorable fight - it was a sneak attack that betrayed the Dragoons' trust in the conduct of the TempTown mercs. The 2nd Sword of Light, had it killed Jaime, would have been engaged in a straight up fight that the Dragoons initiated, so really, no harm no foul. (And the fact that Jaime would have been defenseless during the killing wouldn't have been known to the Dragoons, since there weren't any nearby, and the BattleROMs would have been destroyed or captured by the Sworders.)Except that he wouldn't be dying in battle, this would be similar to shooting someone passed out on the sidewalk, armed or not they are not a threat to you
Natasha might have taken command (due to her bloodname), or one of the other colonels, but the Dragoon mission was to recon all the Successor States, so they would have held to the mission and gotten a contract with the Kuritans in any event, despite the death of their commander. (They worked for the Lyrans after losing huge numbers of troops on Hesperus II during their Cattle Raiding campaign).Weren't the Dragoons under contract to the LC at this time? Wasn't that the reason they where raiding the planet?
Jamie is defenseless and unable to act and in fact could not even refuse to surrender, and technically THAT battle is over. Note that civil charges are the lowest level of punishment he could face, performing that act could well be a war crime. For another example of this sort of thing, look at how the feud between the Dragoons and Wacco Rangers started, or rather the C* hearing on the events that started it.
Except that he wouldn't be dying in battle, this would be similar to shooting someone passed out on the sidewalk, armed or not they are not a threat to you.
Weren't the Dragoons under contract to the LC at this time? Wasn't that the reason they where raiding the planet?
The intent here was to go after high tech freezers (double heatsinks) and PPC schematics and research. It's possible there was other research going on, but probably nothing to do with asteroid weapons. I included Ildlandet because it was a fun description of an abandoned world I'd been wanting to use for some time.
After House Marik successfully launched some deep raids of its own, Alessandro's niece, Katrina, overthrew him with the support of the Estates General in 3007.
Deep raids of their own? I see your talent for understatement is quite British. Those FWL Deep Raids... hit Coventry. That deep strike, well, struck me. How long would that FWL force have been out of contact with home on that?3-4 months, minimum, and that's just on the way to Coventry.
About the warship comment. I found the reference is more about services a ship is in service of. Jumpship is military service. Dropships usually are more referred as "warship " before resurrection actual warships.
I seem to recall a few cameos of Chandra Ling with a speaking role in the Warrior trilogy, but that aside you're spot on.
That would have been cool is the robotic controls had remained. So the world Exit dont exist?
Wow, what a forgotten jem of a story. I didn't know that Tormana was attacked by his own replacement!
Halsten's Brigade is an interesting all-armor mercenary brigade that brings significant firepower to the battlefield and enjoys an excellent reputation, but gets ignored by ComStar and other sourcebook authors in favor of the flashier 'Mech regiments. Still, while many 'Mech units are wiped out in the Civil War and the Jihad, Halsten's Brigade is still around by 3145, by which time it's working for the Venaria planetary government.
TRO:3145 - Steiner. They took the Venaria contract in 3142.
As usual, when diplomatic personnel are involved, I remain aghast at the utter lack of security around these official envoys of the government. Clearly, the security standards for 21st century diplomatic protective services are not standard for the neo-feudalism of the Successor States. When U.S. ambassadors are outside the Embassy, they always have security details with them. Not only does Steiner-Reese not have any security at all, but they both run off, leaving the dead men in a heap, so they won't be there when the Galaport constabulary arrive. Tor notes that shootings like this are commonplace...so why no security detail?!! (Yes, from a dramatic standpoint it lets Tor be the hero, but...)
- Takashi's own father was assassinated by one of his Otomo guards.
Is the Andurien CO really spelled Menio Drews? Because he's spelled Menlo Drews in other canonical sources, and Menko Drews (http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Menlo_Drews) in an extended cameo in the apocryphal German novel Karma (http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Karma).
The founding of the Oberon Confederation is complicated. In any case, it wasn't created by Hendrik Grimm III's grandfather (presumably, there were a few Grimms in between that weren't named "Hendrik").
We have no indication that Kenny Ryan was born to Maria Morgraine. For that matter, I don't even think it's spelled out anywhere that he was RedJack's son, and it has been proposed that he may have been meant to be RedJack proper.
It's spelled out in Ghost of Winter that Susie Morgraine-Ryan was orphaned in the Clan Invasion so it's implied RedJack Ryan died then, at the latest.
Finally caught up. Will say I've been enjoying this thread.
there is no way I’ll buy the Draconis Combine sending an expeditionary force across both the Lyran Commonwealth and Free Worlds League to establish a presence on New St. Andrews.
<snip>
Having started so early – why do they have such a small population of only 190,000 split between four worlds?
<snip>
Seven icy worlds? Not a single temperate world in the region? Nothing that could be terraformed? Given their location, I can see them trading with the Free Worlds League and the Illyrian Palatinate. But exporting something as basic as copper all the way to the friggin’ Taurian Concordat?!!! Also, how is this realm even able to keep in communication. It has no ComStar facilities. They lost their JumpShips. How was that not the end for the political organization that tied the seven worlds together? They’re stranded unless someone stumbles across them. They must have contracts with interstellar trading cartels, which call on the Lothian worlds on a regular schedule, but that should have been made explicit in the writeup.
<snip>
Niops lacks an HPG. Where are they getting their news? They explicitly want to be forgotten by the rest of the galaxy.
It’s odd that the Belt Pirates are noted to have been raiding the Lyrans and Dracs since the end of the Reunification War.
<snip>
In 2770, Kerensky’s SLDF forces were just starting to invade the Rim Worlds Republic. They used Circinus as a major training and staging point. There’s no way some renegade FWL mercenaries could just “show up” and start using it as a staging base for raids
The “Incident Near Butte Hold,” though evocative, demonstrates that Rick Stuart was working without a clear sense of how BattleTech’s K-F drives worked (a common issue with early source material). A passenger on the Demeter Empress says her JumpShip was “driven off-course into the Periphery by an ion storm.” Stuart clearly wanted to take pure pirate imagery and add BattleTech trappings, but just adding “into the Periphery” and “ion” doesn’t make it a fit for BattleTech, which has a well-defined aesthetic. This account has an “ion storm” starting in one system and carrying a ship across interstellar distances to the Butte Hold system, and continuing there for a while before subsiding. Besides, misjumps are usually caused by gravitational interference in the K-F field. Plus, the description of Ryan’s “huge, battlescarred” JumpShip “vectoring in alongside us” is unlikely, given the limited thrust available from a JumpShip. It’s a scene that would fit into Star Trek without question, but doesn’t belong in BattleTech.
“Second Lord” position, then there should have been no question of succession after the elimination of House Cameron – whoever last had the role of Second Lord would become the new First Lord
How much grain and wine can 5,000 people make? How much would they have to export to pay for one battlesat in 3025, let alone a Reagan-class space defense network’s worth?
There’s something of a disconnect between the constant refrain in the military section that the Magistracy military is small, trashed, and illiterate, and needs time to train and rebuild – given the statements in the history section that the Magistracy pretty much sat out the Succession Wars, and just had to face Free Worlds League incursions and pirate raids. It hasn’t had a full war since the year-long war with the Taurians, and that was in the First Succession War, and only involved a few planets. So why is the Magistracy so weak?
Seems simple. The ship misjumped into a system where Ryan's Rebels were known to operate, and someone saw them arrive. A pirate JumpShip might've been close to where they arrived, or were told where they were and jumped in close.
Ryan would have had to be near the Butte Hold jump point in the first place
The Brotherhood of Randis has a lot of interesting trappings, but most of the sidebar focuses on the elaborate induction ritual, rather than any of their actual training. Several subsequent authors have rather pointedly addressed this – having a Smoke Jaguar exile take over and give them real warrior training to replace their prior rituals, which amounted to little more than “brutal hazing.” Even more lore was added by the Interstellar Players books, which posits that these “Knights Templar” are actually guarding treasures removed from the Vatican before the Amaris occupation forces could loot them.
Regarding Adept Spelvin, I thought you might find this interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Spelvin
the Federated Suns has a network of recharge stations in uninhabited worlds to help troops reinforce neighboring PDZs without using major commercial jump points.
Actually got a slight question. Where was this from?
Field Manual: Federated Suns
Actually got a slight question. Where was this from?
Found it. FedCom Civil War, p. 155. "...though not secret, it is uncommon knowledge that centuries ago the Federated Suns set up recharge stations in systems directly connecting regional capitals and other significant systems."
It would suck to be assign to that duty station. In deep space, possibly no habital worlds
It may be worth noting
♪ ♫ Someone didn't read the notes... ♬♩D'oh - got distracted and somehow read over that part. Move on, nothing to see...
This was BattleTech’s first “deep dive” into vehicles. The game debuted with just the core 14 ‘Mechs, and a few vehicles were introduced in the MechWarrior RPG (the Vedette, Hunter, Demolisher, B2 Heavy Transport, Jeep, Skimmer, Air Car, Ground Speeder, and an assortment of robots (security, mining, and agricultural). The earliest scenario packs predated CityTech’s rules for vehicles, so they made up their own (leading to some extremely fragile/abstract hover tanks in the Gray Death Legion scenarios on Trell I).Well, there's also Battledroids that featured very different (but interesting) vehicle rules and gave us generic jeeps armed with either MGs or SRM-2, and the classic tank trio (all with identical armor coverage under Bd rules):
I've never seen a copy of the BattleDroids rulebook. Thanks for the info on the three Gen1 tanks. Were there any illustrations? Did the BattleDroids Hunter look like the one on Vakarel?Check the Sarna article on Battledroids, namely the gallery at the bottom. There's an image of the cutout sheet with the iconography for the tanks. It's rather bland, unfortunately, and the same quality as the old CityTech 1st Ed paper cutouts. The Battledroids rulebook has only very few pictures in it, and the only one with a tank is a b/w version of the cutout.
Nice review! The battle histories from the earier books always made it more interesting and fun to read.
Im surprised u didnt review the old TRO3025. Battle history from the that book was look as closely in the individual reviews.
The text referring to the Duchy of Oriente makes no sense whatsoever. Vakarel is hundreds of light years from the nearest Oriente world (Milnerton)
Dixie has come down a long ways in terms of martial prowess. In the 2900s, it was apparently sending out tank regiments to support LCAF task forces on the FWL border. In 3016, it was a major military supply depot and staging ground that was hit hard by Wolf’s Dragoons, but the garrison gave them a good fight of it. By 3025, however, Dixie was barely able to cobble together a scratch militia to delay a Free Worlds League force seeking a LosTech cache, and succeeded primarily based on deception and maneuver, rather than brute force.
The author was having a bit of fun with the Communications System, naming it the “TharHes Kr-A P/comm”. Presumably, Red Devil Industries didn’t put the best unit into their budget hovertank design.
the bizarre statement that ComStar provided the NETC with top-of-the-line targeting/tracking and communications system designs in exchange for…”food and supplies.”
perhaps there was a larger pool of independent commands, all with the moniker “Commandos,” used for minor raids, garrisoning backwater worlds, and otherwise handling jobs that are too small to bother a major unit with
The description of the HPG being “moved” around the planet to keep it safe from raiders seems unlikely, when you consider the size of these things. Not only the dish, but the equipment (valued at roughly a billion C-bills) is a massive piece of machinery.
claims the DCMS sent 16 fresh regiments to crush the rebels at the end of 3025. In actuality, the fighting had been ongoing at a low level since 3015, and was escalated in October 3025 with the arrival of the Gray Death Legion.
the readily available (just expensive) Type V myomer arm
This is tricky; the Silvan Basin falling into rebel hands marks this incident as concurrent with Grayson's campaign... I *think* what happens is that the rebellion escalates (perhaps *because* of the Swamp Fox) from small-scale to full-scale in mid-3025 (chapter 16 of Mercenary's Star notes that "anti-Combine violence had increased in Regis over the past year or two"), which precipitates the arrival of Kuritan 'Mech regiments, which in turn precipitates the hiring of the GDL.
the arrival of vast numbers of Kurita troops to put down the uprising just doesn't jibe with the events of Mercenary's Star at all.
The Amphigean Light Assault Group is referred to here as mercenaries, consistent with their writeup in the Galtor Campaign book. The Combine Combat Manual has definitively clarified that the Amphigeans started out as mercenaries and then transitioned to be DCMS line units.
Interesting fact about the Hatchetman from TRO 3025...The design was 3 tons underweight...Which is the weight the hatchet 'should' be.
I always thought the Wolverine was based on the BioRoids from Southern Cross of Robotech.
Nope. Neither Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross nor Mospeada provided inspiration for Battletech. Only Macross.Except that if you look at Wolf and the Spider graphic novel/scenario book. They used Southern Cross and Mospeada images for mechs. Lancelot was the Ajax Helicopter vertech, Hornet was the Alpha Fighter.
Despite noting that the “armless” version of the UrbanMech is ineffective and rare due to combat losses, that’s the one pictured in the entry
So, what were all those Firestarters doing for 200+ years? I can appreciate that the SLDF would, as a matter of principle, prefer not to burn down the real estate they were defending, but then why build something with that capacity in any event?
The so-called “Night of Rage” that wiped out the capital city of Skye is another question mark. Per the House Steiner sourcebook, House Kurita attacked Skye in force for the first time in 2893
The Kurita attack on Quentin is said to have happened at the same time as the invasion of Kentares IV, so from around mid-2796 to early 2797. The problem is, the Legion of Vega wasn’t formed until 3011
Not sure how a design pitched to the SLDF wasn’t fielded until 2980.
Marik’s Pesht Regulars? Fighting the St. Ives Armored Cavalry? On Teng? (which lies on the FedSuns/Liao border) Ingersoll at least makes sense, being on the Marik border, but it’s somewhat out of the SIAC’s operational jurisdiction.
I wonder if two writers co-wrote the Cicada entry, because there’s a severe disconnect between the Battle History and Notable MechWarrior sections.
According to the House Marik sourcebook, the Irian factories were damaged in 3014, during the Anton-Janos civil war, and that the damage was fixed by 3017.
I’d guess it’s because such public faith is uncommon in a mercenary unit like the Eridani Light Horse, whereas it would be expected in the Arkab Legions.
its naming convention (Lincoln V) implies that it’s not a secondary world in another on-map system.
Interesting fact about the Hatchetman from TRO 3025...The design was 3 tons underweight...Which is the weight the hatchet 'should' be.
How do you distinguish between a shoulderless UrbanMech and one raising Rifleman-like arms?
One possibility is that the Firestarter was only purchased by House units, and therefore not in use by the periphery or SLDF.
Quibble: 2893 is when House Kurita attempted to conquer those worlds, but it's not necessarily the first time they attacked in force. The Steiner book mentions FWL & DC raids against the Federation of Skye in 2791-2812, and later talks about how much the Commonwealth's industrial output had suffered. (Kurita's strike against Helm is a familiar precedent, and you'd think deep strikes against industrial worlds would be de rigueur for all parties in the First Succession War.)
If the idea is to rationalize these incongruities, then one could view "legion" as a generic term. I remember, for instance, that either the Marik or Capellan book referred to the SLDF division headquartered on Sirius as "the mighty 'Mech legions of Sirius."
Quibble: the fact that Norn II has a more familiar name (Verthandi) doesn't mean secondary worlds in the system would have earned alternate names also.
Except that if you look at Wolf and the Spider graphic novel/scenario book. They used Southern Cross and Mospeada images for mechs. Lancelot was the Ajax Helicopter vertech, Hornet was the Alpha Fighter.
My copy puts the extra weight into heatsinks.
For the Rifleman and heat, with the current rules it works well against most ASF, unload the big guns when the fighter comes overhead, cool down as it turns around for a turn and repeat.
The Rifleman is recognizable as the Raidar-X Destroid from Macross.
Oops...My bad. I think what 15 year old me did was 'This mech is WAY oversinked and should have a 3 ton hatchet' and scratched off the 14 in TRO 3025 and put an 11 there :)
Except there were huge numbers of Firestarters made at a time when severe caps were imposed on the size of House militaries.
TRO:3039 gives a date for the destruction of Argile Technologies that synchronizes with the invasion of Skye.
Yeah, but there are some cases where the author has clearly picked an anachronistic unit, like putting the Night Stalkers in the First Succession War, or Helmar Valasek in 2950. My "go to" dodge for these errors are that ROM was intentionally seeding disinformation to see who else out there still had accurate historical data, so they could self-identify and be marked for possible elimination.
True, but usually systems either refer to worlds by individual names (Mercury, Venus, Terra, Mars, etc. instead of Sol I, Sol II, Sol III, Sol IV), or by numbers (Hesperus I, Hesperus II, Hesperus III, etc.), but not both. (Mercury, Sol II, Terra, Sol IV?) So a system named Lincoln V should be in the Lincoln system, rather than being the fifth out in, say, the Tikonov system.
The outcome of the New Rhodes III campaign is a bit too rosy, since we know that the world fell to the Combine without a fight, per the Dervish entry. The garrison was sent away, leaving only a small guerrilla force under Captain Conrad Warrent. So who is Davion Garrison Commander Colonel Hezekiah Walden?
shooting down all the Smoke Jaguar observation and communication satellites, so that’s probably standard operating practice, but then why didn’t the Rasalhague Regulars do that on Phalan?
The description, however, appears to have assumed it would be a straight-up copy of the Battlepod, since it claims it has short arms, and compares it to the Stalker and Marauder
since the book is framed as a publicly available reference document, I find it flabbergasting that it identifies Thomas Reeves as a Davion agent in the Chesterton Reserves. Why would ComStar compromise this MIIO mole, if they’re trying to maintain 1) the appearance of neutrality and 2) the pretense that they aren’t reading everyone’s mail?
has served throughout his career in the Waco Rangers, the implication is that he’s in his 70s or 80s, at least, and that the Waco Rangers have been around for at least 50 years.
Once again, we see the Syrtis Fusiliers fighting on the Combine border. My guess is that the writers had only the units listed in the MechWarrior 1st Edition rosters (published in 1986, whereas the House sourcebooks came out in 1988) to work with, which would explain why Valasek, Ryan, and Grimm show up so much, and why we keep seeing references to the Syrtis Fusiliers
Zeus: The design history given in this entry is absolutely insane. An introduction date of 2411 would make it the first ‘Mech
The Capabilities section brags that a lone Atlas could engage a battalion of Stingers and retire for repairs in an hour, with only Stinger still able to move. People have used MegaMek to play that out – it never ends well for the Atlas.
<snip>
Intriguingly, the Atlas entry notes that “some ‘Mechs might be taller and heavier.” Unless there were more superheavies than the original Behemoth (“Amaris’ Folly”), I’m not sure what they’re talking about.
If the Leopard is not designed for extended operations, and quarters are cramped for 15 people aboard, how in the world was the Carlyle’s Commandos Leopard able to cram the entire surviving support staff on board when it evacuated from Trell I? I can see cattle car conditions in the empty ‘Mech bays and heavily rationed food and water, sure, but was the ship able to produce sufficient oxygen for them all?That's a problem/inconsistency that I've mentioned before: The classic DropShip trio are more or less pure deployment vehicles, but they're not very good transport vehicles and totally unsuitable as raiders (lacking comfort and life support facilities for the former and cargo space for the latter - seriously, a Union simply cannot carry home any booty and is often even hard-pressed to carry enough food and supplies for a one-way trip from the jump point to the planet so why would you take it as a raider unless it carries only half its 'Mech complement? Well granted the Black Thorns got away with loading a 13th 'Mech into the 'Mech bay of their Union, but special circumstances (otherwise known as "author fiat" and "poor factchecking") must have been involved, and in-universe there would have been problems involved that the novel glossed over.).
Sigh. (I’m a die-hard Capellan, and the writer’s bible for TRO:3025 and TRO:3026 appears to have included a mandate that “House Liao never wins.”)But isn't that exactly why us 3025 grognards love the Confederation, Comrade? It's an uphill struggle with real opportunity for achievement, as opposed to Davion or Dragoons where anything but a complete walkover of any opposing force is considered a shameful loss. ;)
The Periphery sourcebook has the Taurians manufacturing Rommels in 3026. With Hansen’s Roughriders deploying the tanks in the field for the first time in 3020 (we think, based on the estimated date of Bear Peters’ “The Race is Not to the Swift”), it’s possible, but this raises questions about the Taurian Ministry of Intelligence demonstrating a reach and sophistication far beyond what its reputation would suggest. Or else ComStar stole the designs and supplied them to the Taurians just to mess with House Davion.Although I cannot check my sources right now, TPTB have repeatedly stated that this is a genuine reporting error and that the tank was never produced elsewhere. (Isn't this even mentioned in TRO3039?) It's not even a canon rumor. It's just plain wrong.
The Packrat’s jamming abilities were used to great effect against the Gray Death Legion on Helm. The Packrats there were even referred to as Packrat ECM vehicles.I was under the impression that these were special ECM systems mounted on Packrat frames, not regular Packrats, given how effective they were. Probably a FWL equivalent to the Capellan ECM attempts on the Raven. A FWL ECM system features prominently in a Snord's Irregulars scenario so the FWL is no stranger to recovered ECM tech, though it doesn't get much pagecount (probably on account of the FWL being the forgotten stepchild of BT fiction until it is used to breed the militant WoB).
The Long Tom’s impressive writeup conceals the fact that, at the time, the Long Tom was highly ineffectual, with just a 7-hex AOE burst. The new rules giving it an extra ring of damage make it much more of a factor.Given the hype about 'Mechs ruling the battlefield, I feel that the newer artillery rules are way overpowered. The Long Tom outshines all other artillery systems to the point where it is almost the only artillery ever mentioned in fiction at all until the arrival of Arrow IV, which is a bit bland imho. Thumpers and Snipers are sadly ignored although the impression was given that the Long Tom is somewhat rare and valuable, and the least likely of all artillery systems to appear on a battlefield.
I’m not sure exactly when Pearce and Reynolds could have gone to guns against each other
I’m sort of at a loss to explain the 2952 Marik raid on “Andorian V” (almost certainly meant to be Andurien V). <snip> seldom seen combat action over the last 50-75 years,” which would imply that they did have heavy combat in 2950 – confirming a major Capellan incursion into Andurien space right around 2950.
If only the Rasalhagians had decided to call their clones the Axl and the Slash instead of the Axel Mk I/Axel Mk II. :)
<snip>
The statement that the Rommel and Patton are the first new tanks since the Star League is nonsense.
Why would House Marik take control of a vast number of Galleons in the 2780s, own and operate the factories that make them, but not use them until 2910?
<snip>
perhaps ComStar mistook the Dragoon Badger (also 30 tons, moving 6/9) for the Galleon.
The Repair Facility is... not really a unit writeup. It says even in the text that not two look alike and that they're usually pretty much pounded to scrap anyways. The whole paragraph is more airy fluff than anything else imho.
It seems odd that Houses Steiner and Liao would be producing the Monolith and only have a pair each while manufacturing it yet House Kurita has over a dozen and doesn't make any.
The entry giving Taurians the Rommel was circa 3025, and the Roughriders didn't join the Concordat until decades later, so they couldn't be a vector.
Production resumed in 3030, thanks to NAIS help via the FedCom alliance.)
The years between 2974 and 3027 saw the construction of less than two dozen Fortress Class vessels. In the early part of this century it appeared the Fortress would become extinct, as the last construction facility closed due to a lack of parts. However, the alliance between the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth allowed Semier Data Tron to resume production of the vessel. The firm secretly constructed twenty Fortresses for Archon Katrina Steiner in the six years before the Outbreak of the Fourth Succession War.
When I was compiling a database trying to model the 3025 forces of the Successor States and 17 clans, I went with as much canon data as possible, but there's still a lot of vagueness left out there (intentionally, to allow room for players to run units of their own creation).Have you checked how your tables hold up against the Xotl RAT tables?
Have you checked how your tables hold up against the Xotl RAT tables?
XotI?:) Faction Assignment & Rarity Tables (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,1219.0.html)
XotI?3028-3050 Random Assignment & Rarity Tables - 11 Jan v9.1 (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=1219.0) by Battletech Volunteer Xoti (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=287).