Medron,
We have been fighting this battle for way too long. Just let him go. He's already proven your point with his own defense.
Stormfury,
Old military saying, "There's a reason that old bastard stinks, he's arleady survived all the shit your about to get into."
Medrons got web pages that are older than many of the players here, so don't push too hard on the limited scope of a fact checker. But, what it does say is that he has enough respect from the BT community and the fortitude to have earned the honorable mention in a publicated resource. I am pretty sure I have not seen a similiar reference for Stormfury.
To:Everyone
To be honestly truthful, more canon material has been written on Wolf's Dragoons than any of the Major Periphery States individually, and ninety percent of what is Periphery canon, has been written to support Inner Sphere storyline. In the faction handbooks, Wolf's Dragoons has more reference for their 5 years of service for that specific Inner Sphere faction than the whole of the Periphery's influence for the last 250 game years on that specific Inner Sphere faction. With those points alone, any one of the Periphery factions have a basis for objection for what the Inner Sphere knows and doesn't know about Periphery development.
In the old days, the standing rule was 'The Periphery factions used record sheets available to provide forces for battle that they would likely be able to field, yet canon materials had yet to supply as official.' In 1988, the release of the oiginal Periphery sourcebook in conjunction with the original Star League Sourcebook provided a logical and reasonable balance of the Periphery and the Inner Sphere states as supported by those resources. But, with it's publication came a problem. In writing the Periphery Sourcebook, 'canon' source, began to override the unofficial rule of 'likely able to field.' To be honest, if the writer's spent as much time writing about the Periphery as they did about Wolf's Dragoons, the issue would have been irrelevant. But, the resources available to the Periphery were typically out of date before they were even published, nor did the published materials maintain enough content to support the Periphery factions ability to field a balance force in comparison to Inner Sphere forces.
Furthermore, although a distinction was made between the Major Periphery powers and the Lesser Periphery powers, references made to 'the periphery' were applied to both powers by the readers when they should have been written by the writers specifically to apply to the major, minor or even independants powers for clarification for the reader.
As time has gone by in both game time and real time, the margin of reasonable forces between the Inner Sphere and the Major Periphery has increased. In 3025, Major Periphery forces individually were equal in technology, but in design reasonably lighter. This game balancing application was more than reasonable, allowing Major Periphery factions forces to battle Inner Sphere factions forces within a limited scope and still have the ability to win a tactical decision, but ultimately loose in a strategical decision. As the game has developed over the years, advanced technology has been handed out freely to Inner Sphere factions while it has been withheld from the Major Periphery factions. The rules of reasonable forces has become so imbalancedd that Major Periphery faction forces cannot gain a tactical victory, let alone a strategic one. Not only are Major Periphery forces lighter, they are equiped with less technology and the technology being supplied is often so mis-appropriately used as to make it unfunctional. Two recent examples are the Archer ARC-6W and the Thunderbird D50. Both are designated as upgrades but are less functional in actual gameplay. The Archer has decreased range, decreased hit percentages, decreased longevity that leads to a degrigation of its primary function as a long range support platform. Ironically, it's the only heavy long range support platform that the TC has. As for the Thunderbird, the original version had a balanced spectrum of attack range. Replacing the LRM's with AC10's degrigates that balance by reducing long range ability to hit by 3 hexes as well as decreasing hit probabilities at all ranges above 6 hexes. The minimum range of the LRM's was not an issue, because the ML's compensated for it. The range scope of the new weapons forces TC pilots to get closer to their targets, which increases the chances of being out maneuvered and attacked from the rear, mitigating the advantage gained by equiping the AC's in the first place. Ironically, the choice was made to add 8 heat sinks instead of changing to DHS, which would have created a much better heat profile, nor was pulse or extended range equipment used that was available. Equiping ER Lasers, LBX AC's and DHS's, thats an upgrade that the TC is capable of in 3075.
The last subject I do want to address is the Rommel Tank. Stormfury argues the point that the Inner Sphere stripped many of it's fusion engine tanks of their power plants during the Successor Wars for use in Battlemechs. But, as the Inner Sphere is so accustom to pointing out, the Periphery is not the Inner Sphere. The Periphery had not fought in any major battles since the end of the Star League until the MoC's incursions into the Capellan Confederation. Which means, the production levels being produced by Periphery war industry manufacturer's have been set to maintain replacement of old and worn out equipment only. Defense doctrine is going to have minimum production capabilities that would far exceed those production numbers during preparation for war or a wartime production level. In a realworld touch of reality, a rep of Oshkosh Truck could not be specific, but indicated current production of their vehicles could substancially be increased in a matter of months. When clarification of substancial was requested, they indicated not in a percentage, but in a multiple. That indicates an increase larger than 2 times current production if needed. Another indicator of military capability was my local ammunition production facility. I recently was employed to dismantle this facility. This facility was maintained in a shutdown readiness condition from the end of the Korean war until the start of Vietman, roughly 15 years. It was up and running within 6 months, and it supplied all of the rocket propellant and all of the artillery shells used in the Vietman War. That was just one facility. It had a sister plant that was never started up during Vietnam. More amazing, the US declared war against Japan on Dec 7, 1941. The complete facility was built (7800 buildings) within a year. Now, reference that capability to a reasonable TC capability to produce say a RL equiped Maultier and you could have 45 regiments of light attack vehicles on the defense within a couple of years. Unlike a limited amount of 'Rommel similiar' heavy tanks, those cheap little Maultiers could mess up an all out Davion invasion that is foreseen in the coming future. You might want to ceed the 'Rommel similiar', because the instantanious attack from a lance of Maultiers (cost:under 2 million) could be 30 RL/10's, and the following attack of 6 platoons of anti-mech trained infantry (cost:under 8 million) on downed mechs isn't pretty. Isn't it nice we have a mandatory 2 year service in the military, and a complete population of trained soldiers to defend our beloved TC.
