Clan Warships - Who mans them?

[Hawkeye Jim]

As far as letting technicians handle weapons, how many techs are failed warriors sent down? Wouldn't they be capable of handling warship guns?

[Stormfury]

Everyone is capable of it. Would they be allowed to, though?

The Clans (again, aside from the Blood Spirits) are quite rigid about caste duties. Warriors fight. Technicians do not fight. Merchants do not fight.

Even the members of the Clan equivalent to the Police are Warriors.

[Arkansas Warrior]

As far as letting technicians handle weapons, how many techs are failed warriors sent down? Wouldn't they be capable of handling warship guns?

Capable yes.  But the warriors have cultural issues with letting civilians do the shooting.  Hell, during Klondike the 40 from each Clan had issues letting their auxiliaries do anything but occupy territory.

[Hawkeye Jim]

But are technicians civilians? If they are attached to a military unit as part of that unit, they're military, not civilian.

[Alan Grant]

We know the Clans attach lower castes to warriors. For example on Tukayyid, lower caste combat engineers or the equivilant of were used (I think by the Jade Falcons). I have always wondered if those personnel carried small arms and could defend themselves.

Also the Snow Ravens use R-Teams to collect salvage, consisting of a mix of mechs/elementals and techs. The technicians are armed and can defend themselves. They are put directly in harm's way.

Ultimately though on the question of warship guns, we just don't know. I've heard the theories that gun crews are led by warriors, or consist of warriors, on these forums for at least a couple years. However I don't know if that is based on anything but player/community opinion. There is no canon literature evidence that I am aware of. So I have always taken that information with a degree of natural skepticism.

The Clans didn't seem to have any trouble with auxillaries or lower castemen firing the guns during Operation Klondike. The only "Clan Warriors" present commanded the warships from the bridge.

[ColBosch]

With respect to Bosch, he'd not one of the TPTB which are developers ie Herb and Randall and possibly Welsh, though again no disrepect to Joel, but even that's questionable.

This is correct. I may be doing some writing, editing, and handling the errata, but I am not a developer. Even if I was, this is General Discussion and my comments shouldn't be taken as carved-in-stone canon (though it'd be nice once in a while ;D ). Ultimately, if you want the final answer on this question, I suggest asking in Masters of the Universe.

[Fatebringer]

There's an App Thread for that.  :D

[HABeas2]

Hello,

With respect to Bosch, he'd not one of the TPTB which are developers ie Herb and Randall and possibly Welsh, though again no disrepect to Joel, but even that's questionable.

For clarification, the line developers for the BattleTech Game Line are as follows:
   Herbert A. Beas II - Line Developer
   Ben H. Rome - Assistant Line Developer

Joel Bancroft-Connors (AKA Welshman) was a Product Developer for TRO: 3085 and its PDF-exclusive Supplemental. A Product Developer is, as the title suggests, responsible only for a selected product.

Randall N. Bills is the Managing Developer for Catalyst Game Labs, and while that qualifies him for a higher rank over Line Developers, BattleTech is not his sole development focus.

Hopefully this helps clarify matters. You may now continue your discussion.

Thank you,

- Herbert Beas
  BattleTech
  Catalyst Game Labs

[Jackmc]

Ah, I totally forgot about Ben.  Thanks for the clarification Herb.

-Jackmc

[Kit deSummersville]

Of course, the Blood Spirits regularly give all their sub castes weapons and they all have some rudimentary combat training.

[Stormfury]

And that is something that sets them apart. It's also something they only did because they belived there was no other way to protect what they had left.

[Jackmc]

I think we're getting overly hung up on semantics.  From a techncial standpoint are Clan ship crews techs and laborors?  Yes.  From a cultural standpoint are they warriors?  Yes.  They recieve military-specific training which in Clan society is the exclsuive purview of the Warrior caste.

At the same time, in the majority of Clans, they are warriors that couldn't test into a "real" military profession so they are porbably in the same boat as the police and justice system warriors  ie.  one very short step from Solohama.  Still as things go, in the hell that would be real life Clan society, it's probably one of the nicer ways to live. 

-Jackmc