The Rasalhague Dominion: Friend of a Friend (but not your Friend)

[Rainbow 6]

I got an email from BattleCorps telling me about the updated file.

Same here although from Drive Through RPG.

[ANS Kamas P81]

And now that I take a closer look at the Record Sheet, I think they're making a joke.

What joke?

[Smegish]

Well, the tonnage, thrust, DS and fighter capacities are not shown, just has XX's there. But the real joke is the cost: 'Seriously, No.'  :D :D :D

[ANS Kamas P81]

I wonder now, with the Skinwalker. Maybe the Bears could turn the Kungsarme into the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

[Jellico]

That would be Tyrthe Watch.

[solmanian]

I just want to see it ram Malvina's warship like a freight train through a pickup truck.  HOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK.

Something like this?
https://youtu.be/XspBNSyvFDk?t=4m47s

Have to admit, I was never a fan of the loaf-of-bread look.

[ANS Kamas P81]

Something like this?
https://youtu.be/XspBNSyvFDk?t=4m47s

Have to admit, I was never a fan of the loaf-of-bread look.

Like, hell.  THAT.  Seriously, when you have a warship that's carved from an asteroid made of pure armor, Davion piloting techniques work.

[marauder648]

Like, hell.  THAT.  Seriously, when you have a warship that's carved from an asteroid made of pure armor, Davion piloting techniques work.

Or there's this version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpP7gMPzC78

[MidfieldMarauder]

So the Ghost Bears get talked out of using a Watchdog CEWS/C3i pairing around the time of the Second Combine-Dominion War, but then fifty years later, most of the Council of Six Clans are now caught using Machina Domini interface technology.

Sounds to me like the Ghost Bears were actually first on the scene with an idea for a change.

Makes me wonder two things:  1. Will we see the Dominion re-starting their abandoned C3i program? 2. Or, will they just make a deal with the Snow Ravens to get the new interface technology (assuming that they don't already have it right now anyway)?

[Jellico]

You realize we have owned the Parash factory since before 3130? We were fighting the Interface Parashes. We have been beside the Horses as long as the Wolves. The chances of us not having the technology are very low.

[MidfieldMarauder]

Yeah, I agree. It's pretty low, but I'm wondering if the Ghost Bears would just as soon revive the C3i project rather than go the interface cockpit route. The C3i for some reason feels more Bearish than the interface.

[marauder648]

So the Ghost Bears get talked out of using a Watchdog CEWS/C3i pairing around the time of the Second Combine-Dominion War, but then fifty years later, most of the Council of Six Clans are now caught using Machina Domini interface technology.

Sounds to me like the Ghost Bears were actually first on the scene with an idea for a change.

Makes me wonder two things:  1. Will we see the Dominion re-starting their abandoned C3i program? 2. Or, will they just make a deal with the Snow Ravens to get the new interface technology (assuming that they don't already have it right now anyway)?

Interface tech simply seems too much of a step for the Bears to take, whilst C3i makes sense for them, working as a team as a 'pack' to bring down prey and all that malarky with assorted hunting references thrown in there.  But yeah, C3i for them makes more sense than the admittedly radical interface tech, although they might adopt something not so radical if they can perhaps preserve a Mechwarrior's life?

[WeaponX]

Interface tech simply seems too much of a step for the Bears to take, whilst C3i makes sense for them, working as a team as a 'pack' to bring down prey and all that malarky with assorted hunting references thrown in there.  But yeah, C3i for them makes more sense than the admittedly radical interface tech, although they might adopt something not so radical if they can perhaps preserve a Mechwarrior's life?

I actually think that the Interface experiments originated with the Bears (the Horses probably just acquired it from them), since they had the most interaction against the WOB out of all the Clans.  The Bears were already experimenting with C3i and mixed Tech, so if they captured Interface technology I could see them experimenting with that too, and for the Horses to stumble across those experiments during one of their raids against the Dominion and making the technology their own in the form of the Parash.  Personally I think it fits with the Bear mindset of "we can build it bigger" in that since they don't have Protomechs (because they lack the small statured big headed Aerospace phenotype), why not design something that is like a Protomech, but bigger and can actually utilize existing Mechwarrior/Elemental sized phenotypes?  I wouldn't be surprised if in the future the Bears unvieled a Light or Medium BA sized Interface Suit that fits into a special 5 ton Interface Cockpit, in fact I actually designed such a thing a few years ago when the Interface cockpit first came out.

[Kojak]

No, it definitely originates with the Horses; the fluff about it in IO Beta is explicit on that point.

[WeaponX]

No, it definitely originates with the Horses; the fluff about it in IO Beta is explicit on that point.

The following qouote: "Clan Hell’s Horses appears to be the originator of this horror, which we now believe debuted on the Parash.", leaves the way open for them to later retcon it to say something like "it was the Bears, who were doing experiments with mixed tech, that were actually the first to experiment with Interface technology from samples they captured from their Trial of Annihilation against the WOB.  I was only after a Hells Horses raid on one of their experimental facilities that the technology spread to the Horses, who promptly took the technology beyond the experimental stage and onto the prototype stage with their Parash Battlemech." 

Personally I think it makes more sense for the Bears to have been doing experiments on it first thanks to their expossure to the WOB, and with their actual canon instances of doing mixed tech experiments.  Not trying to minimize what the Horses did, but how exactly could they have gotten their hands on the technology to begin with since they didn't really get exposed much to the WOB if at all.  It makes more sense for them to have gotten it from the Bears, who got it from the WOB etc.

[Kojak]

The Eleventh Mechanized Cavalry Cluster fought in Operation SCOUR, and fought on Mars during the fall of Terra at the end of the Jihad. Given that the Master's hideout, ROM's training center, and one of the primary Celestial factories were all on Mars, there's adequate reason to believe that one or more Gestalts were present and the Horses salvaged one. The R&D start date given in IO Beta is 3082, which is pretty much what you'd expect if they'd salvaged some of the tech on Mars in '79 and sent it back to the Horse OZ. If anything, given that the Bears were famous for utterly annihilating anything Blakist they came across, and no Bear ground forces participated in the assault on the Terran system, it's less likely that the Bears got their hands on any working copies of the tech.

[nova_dew]

Considering how rare E.I is amongst the Bears (1 in 5 +/- in clans that favour it), remember how we melted down anything that was touched by the Shadow Divisions, there is next to no chance it originated with us.

Not to mention that the modified experimental Parash's we fought in 3086 seemed to have run away as soon as they were hit, chances of salvage are slim and at that time what do you think we would have done to the Horses if we found WoB technology, especially Shadow Division WoB technology?

More interestingly ARTS small craft bays...
will we be seeing clan drone fighters and dropships?
maybe that's the link between us and the Ravens?

[Jellico]

ARTS is automated repair and maintenance. No drones required.

[nova_dew]

It is my universe and i will have drones  :D

[Maelwys]

Hmm. The Leviathan III has a HPG.

I wonder if it works :)

[ANS Kamas P81]

Hmm. The Leviathan III has a HPG.

Hyper-Panic Generator?  Yeah, it works.

You realize we have owned the Parash factory since before 3130? We were fighting the Interface Parashes. We have been beside the Horses as long as the Wolves. The chances of us not having the technology are very low.

True, but the mention of the Bears' hate-on for the MD tech is worth note, and the dated references are 40 years before that date.  Maybe it was a short experimental production run that didn't last long, and the factory was retooled for regular Parashes.

Not that I'm trying to argue with you over what's canon and not, just trying to reconcile both data points.  You're the yellow Battlemaster!  ;D  That said, I'm not gonna lie, I'd love to see the Dominion - especially half a century removed from the Jihad - start adapting some of the tech like the Wolves did.  That Skinwalker deserves a Kodiak-themed design...might have to throw one onto the design forum.

[Jellico]

Well we are the only Clan really making use of Stealth BA.

[wantec]

Well, the tonnage, thrust, DS and fighter capacities are not shown, just has XX's there. But the real joke is the cost: 'Seriously, No.'  :D :D :D

I think that was more a matter of how the RS was generated. I think everything except the cost should be available on the fluff page for the Lev III

[Nebfer]

What would be the typical Ghost bear Cluster make up at this point? (divided into front and other lines.)

The 3050-70ish era unit was

Cmd Trinary* (Personally I prefer cmd units that are not part of a lower unit...)
Mech Trinary*
Mech Trinary*
Elemental Binary*
Fighter Binary*
*one or more of these could be replaced with Supernovas, not to mention the Binarys could be replaced with Trinarys and vice versa

Phalanx Units seem to replace one or more of the Mech units with Tanks, and are more orientated as defense units.

[Jellico]

3145. 3130 was smaller.

Cmd Trinary* (Personally I prefer cmd units that are not part of a lower unit...)
Mech Trinary*
Mech Trinary*
Elemental Binary*
Fighter Binary*
*one or more of these could be replaced with Supernovas, not to mention the Binarys could be replaced with Trinarys and vice versa

That is was and remains the ideal.

Unfortunately a lack of light and medium OmniMechs messed with it so the Elemental Binary was replaced in many Clusters with a Transport Supernova. Of course that is a very loose term. After all you only need 10 Tyr to shift 50 BA, and it isn't specified if it is a Binary or Trinary based Supernova. So it becomes a convenient place to administratively hide all manner of tanks from VTOLs to Hueys. This formation remains in use with the Kungsarme Clusters and several second line Galaxies.

Transport Supernovas were also in use in front line formations through the antebellum though probably Binary sized. Alpha is probably the only one that remained pure.

[Jellico]

We hold New Oslo. Should we be building Balius given we already build Mad Dog IIIs and Karhus?

[Natasha Kerensky]

We hold New Oslo. Should we be building Balius given we already build Mad Dog IIIs and Karhus?

Naw.  Not so much because the Balius overlaps with the Mad Dog III or the Karhu, but because it sucks so much.

I'd say start over and make a clean-sheet Bear quad.

Otherwise convert the Balius and/or the Black Hawk (Standard) lines at Manufacturing Site #3 to Stormcrows (or Skinwalkers?). 

Also reinvent the Viper (optimize at 7/11/7 speed, add TSM?) by converting the Parash and/or Black Hawk (Standard) lines.

And develop a hardened, more survivable Fire Moth from the Locust IIC line.

[ANS Kamas P81]

What, no love for the Mighty Buttlaser of Doom?  Seriously though, I agree pretty much across the board.  RasDom's got some great rides, though a proper Dire Moth would be nice as a BA transport, especially for the newer bigger battlesuits out there.  Rogue Bear and Corona points need some speedy love, and the idea of Rogue Bear-HR teams hunting soft targets with a fast, high-firepower light 'mech to back them up is perfect Kungsarme territory.

[SteveRestless]

a proper Dire Moth would be nice as a BA transport

Dire... Moth? heh!

Fund it!

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Godzilla already fought it.