BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
Catalyst Game Labs => Ask the Writers => Topic started by: BrokenMnemonic on 09 January 2012, 14:55:20
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The 1st Edition guide to the Periphery has a unit entry on the Magistracy Royal Guards on page 96, which states that the unit earned the appellation "Royal" for their defence of Canopus IV during the Reunification War, although the dates listed for the battle for Canopus don't match those in Historical: Reunification War. The description of the Magistracy Royal Guards states that the Guards were drawn from previous units destroyed during the Reunification War.
Field Manual: Periphery indicates that the modern Raventhir's Iron Hand was the 31st century designation of the Magistracy Guards, and expands on the history of the guards a little on p. 30, stating that the origin of the Guards was an ad hoc battalion, one of a number formed from the remnants of other Magistracy units, and that the Guards were an ad hoc battalion given an official name after it handed the SLDF troops a defeat on the world of Cranston in 2580.
Historical: Reunification War lists a unit named the Magestrix Guards, which appears to have been on Canopus at the start of the war on 2577, and which seems to have remained there throughout the war until the loss of Canopus in 2584. It also indicates that the world of Cranston was captured in 2578, and had been defended by the 1st Canopian Grenadiers and the 3rd Canopian Light Horse, the latter having originally been assigned to Restitution but which relocated to Cranston as part of a bait and switch ploy against the SLDF.
Both of those MAF units, the Grenadiers and the 3rd Light Horse, seem to have survived the battle on Cranston. The MAF forces detailed on p. 95 also mention a Home Guard (Kossandra's Volunteers) consisting of 12 regiments but lists BattleMech regiments seperately, with a total strength of 17 BattleMech regiments and 12 Home Guard regiments. While the two are listed seperately, the description for the battle of Eleusis indicates that there were 4 BattleMech regiments and 18 conventional regiments present from the MAF, which would rather imply that the Homeguard either increased in size over the first three years of the war significantly, or that the Home Guard were equipped in whole or in part with BattleMechs. Historical: Reunification War doesn't indicate which worlds the Home Guard/Kossandra's Volunteers fought on though - other than the listing on p. 95 and some unit traits in the rules section, the Home Guard/Kossandra's Volunteers don't seem to be mentioned anywhere in Historical: Reunification War
Having tried to marry the three sources together, I'm confused as to whether:
a. the Magestrix Guard listed in Historical: Reunification War are the antecedants of the Magistracy Royal Guard/Raventhir's Iron Hand, which doesn't jibe with the detail on the MRG/RIH having fought on Cranston (even ignoring the discrepancies regarding timeframes)
b. the Magistracy Royal Guard/Raventhir's Iron Hand were formed from elements of the 1st Canopian Grenadiers/4th Canopian Light Horse, which doesn't jibe with the description of them having been formed from the remains of destroyed units, but which would make them distinct from the Magestrix Royal Guard
c. The Home Guard was the collective name for Mech-equipped or partially Mech-equipped militia type units scattered around the Magistracy at various unit strengths, and that the Magistracy Royal Guard were formed from a Home Guard battalion that had been on either Restitution or Cranston, which managed to survive and retreat alongside the 1st Canopian Grenadiers/4th Canopian Light Horse, and which fought again as a unit on Canopus IV. This would make the Magestrix Guard mentioned in Historical: Reunification War a seperate and distinct unit.
d. Something else completely.
Is it possible to confirm if any of the above theories are accurate? I know that new trumps over old, and that the original Periphery Sourcebook is full of holes and inaccuracies, but it'd be great to be able to reconcile the details on Raventhir's Iron Hand/the Magistracy Royal Guard with those units and events listed in Historical: Reunification War.
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Nope, not the same unit. They're similarly named (and may have been incorporated into the Magistracy Royal Guard) but the Magestrix Guard were intended as the bodyguard unit for Canopus' leader (hence sitting on Canopus for much of the campaign).
The Home Guard was always intended as a somewhat amorphous force over and above the 17 line units (my TOE has them down as "12 mixed regiments"), scattered around the Magistracy, and it's involvement in battles was implied where larger named unit's weren't present. They'd have 'mechs but be bolstered by conventional forces (over and above any conventional forces assigned to support the line units). I always assumed that in some cases a Home guard unit could have forces scattered across half a dozen worlds, making nuisences of themselves to the SLDF, while in other cases the HG unit would be concentrated and act as a single unit.
Keep in mind too that there was more troop movement going on than a year-based deployment table can show - Buquoy's shell game was such that I was actually loath do do any deployment table for the MAF - and that very small units generally don't appear (think of it as showing the major players and the major movesm, not necessarily every participant or step along the way).
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Thank you, that's good to know. I'd wondered what was going on with the Home Guard, as they were mentioned in the force roster and had specific unit rules, but didn't crop up in any of the battles mentioned. Although they also have what has to be one of my favourite characters from the Magistracy campaign in their ranks - the militia Colonel on Bethonolog who told an SLDF brigade he intended to resist, but with their permission, after the Christmas holidays.
The battle for Eleusis mentions having 18 infantry and armor units in addition to the four named MAF units - I take it that represents a large part of the Home Guard being moved onto the planet?
In a similar fashion to the Magestrix Guard/Magistracy Royal Guard conundrum, are the Canopian Cuirassiers mentioned in Historical: Reunification War the antecedents of the modern 1st Canopian Curiassiers? The modern unit echoes the Magistracy Royal Guard, in that it says it was formed up from the remains of other units on Canopus, but the Deployment table shows the Canopian Cuirassiers as being on Canopus in 2577, years earlier. The modern 1st Canopian Cuirassiers uses the same unit insignia as the Cuirassiers listed in H:RW, but then the Magistracy Royal Guard use the same insignia as the Magestrix Guard, which implies that unit standards are kept alive even if the units aren't directly related.