Rasalhague Dominion: The voting will continue until morale improves!

[Minemech]

It is funny that you mention the HPG system...

:toofunny:

 I was referring to the fact that Comstar maintained an absolute monopoly over HPGs because no one else could provide that service. Yeah, I parsed that in a way that might make me seem aloof to who was buying up Comstar.

[CJC070]

:toofunny:

 I was referring to the fact that Comstar maintained an absolute monopoly over HPGs because no one else could provide that service. Yeah, I parsed that in a way that might make me seem aloof to who was buying up Comstar.

The question is will the Sea Foxes try to sell mercs to the Ghost Bears or just merchandise.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I think that the Dominion is going to have to be really desperate before considering hiring mercs.

[CJC070]

I think that the Dominion is going to have to be really desperate before considering hiring mercs.

So the Dominion won’t buy not the first financial error the Sea Foxes have.  By the way have you heard their new sale on an Oscout IIC currently 10% off (sale started 3070).

[Foxx Ital]

I think that the Dominion is going to have to be really desperate before considering hiring mercs.

At least inner sphere mercs, too bad the vipers arent still around ;)

[tassa_kay]

I think that the Dominion is going to have to be really desperate before considering hiring mercs.

I'm certain there was mention in at least one sourcebook that the Dominion had a back-up plan of some kind to mobilize/militarize their own population if they had to.

[Jellico]

And the DC has the Ashigaru Initiative. This has the potential to get as total war as BattleTech gets as various forms of conscription are activated.

[tassa_kay]

FM3145, pg 153: "Emergency plans exist for the mass mobilization of the Rasalhagian population, which would produce an army the other Clans could only dream about, but these plans come with a social and economic cost the Council is not willing to bear."

To be fair, Dominions Divided was probably the nail in the coffin to the idea, and lots of plot threads and story seeds from FM3145 have shifted under the newer regime. But still, the idea of pitting these two up against each other like that is a lot of fun to ponder.

[Metallgewitter]

FM3145, pg 153: "Emergency plans exist for the mass mobilization of the Rasalhagian population, which would produce an army the other Clans could only dream about, but these plans come with a social and economic cost the Council is not willing to bear."

To be fair, Dominions Divided was probably the nail in the coffin to the idea, and lots of plot threads and story seeds from FM3145 have shifted under the newer regime. But still, the idea of pitting these two up against each other like that is a lot of fun to ponder.

Would that be all Rasalhagians who could serve the miltary? Or only the younger ones who are more fit for military service? Either way that would be an army no Clan has ever controlled. I could see major issues keeping the the cohesion intact for a longer time of conflict

[Tyler Jorgensson]

Well the Ghost Bear Dominion has never had a scenario on that scale that would require it. The FRR of course did and that was the Ghost Bears invading. I don’t know what our reserves would look like but I do imagine a lot of Battle Armor and Vehicles (obviously Infantry) sorta like the ending of ‘Trial by Chaos’ on Vega.

But as Tessa pointed out DD makes this sort of initiative sorta dangerous. To put a ‘hostile’ population with a lot of military hardware… you’ll need one hell of a threat to have them all cohesive and aligned in purpose: we’re talking DCMS invading first or IlClan declaring Absorption, Homeworld invasions etc etc.

[ColBosch]

And there's the usual BattleTech problems: how do you equip and mobilize such an enormous force? Okay, you've got 50,000 regiments on paper, but they're armed with kitchen knives and can't deploy anywhere they can't walk.

[Tyler Jorgensson]

And there's the usual BattleTech problems: how do you equip and mobilize such an enormous force? Okay, you've got 50,000 regiments on paper, but they're armed with kitchen knives and can't deploy anywhere they can't walk.

Exactly: coupled with the patchwork HPG/ Pony express system that is wrecking your JumpShip fleets.

[Metallgewitter]

And there's the usual BattleTech problems: how do you equip and mobilize such an enormous force? Okay, you've got 50,000 regiments on paper, but they're armed with kitchen knives and can't deploy anywhere they can't walk.

The only thing I could see for that would be akin to the Ashigaru initiatives of the Combine: turn your planets populations into armed camps (simple rifles and armored vehicles should be something most planets can produce by retooling factories) and you have at least a line of defense on your planets. But for offense when you need Mechs, fighters and real tanks? Not possible. Mech pilots alone need a lot of training and those also have to be produced or pulled out of mothballs / boneyard bunkers and get prepped. And as said before right after a civil war? That's brushing the line of chaos right there

[DOC_Agren]

FM3145, pg 153: "Emergency plans exist for the mass mobilization of the Rasalhagian population, which would produce an army the other Clans could only dream about, but these plans come with a social and economic cost the Council is not willing to bear."

I honest think and hope that all nations have a plan like these to turn planets into armed camps that become harder to invade.   I see Infantry and Armored forces, because we can raise them cheaply..  You aren't going to magically raise Mech or Aerospace Pilots and units for them to operate.  Nor is moving them from planet to planet going to be easy.

The downside of raising Armed Camps is if they turn on Clan forces, the natives are armed and a threat to them.

[CJC070]

I honest think and hope that all nations have a plan like these to turn planets into armed camps that become harder to invade.   I see Infantry and Armored forces, because we can raise them cheaply..  You aren't going to magically raise Mech or Aerospace Pilots and units for them to operate.  Nor is moving them from planet to planet going to be easy.

The downside of raising Armed Camps is if they turn on Clan forces, the natives are armed and a threat to them.

I doubt the Wolves or Falcons had similar plans but again it could explain how some of their former holdings managed to raise an armed force so easily.

[Metallgewitter]

I honest think and hope that all nations have a plan like these to turn planets into armed camps that become harder to invade.   I see Infantry and Armored forces, because we can raise them cheaply..  You aren't going to magically raise Mech or Aerospace Pilots and units for them to operate.  Nor is moving them from planet to planet going to be easy.

The downside of raising Armed Camps is if they turn on Clan forces, the natives are armed and a threat to them.

I would say that at least some planets have plans for that. Just look at Kentares IV during the Combine's push. The Kentares DMM build fortifications, the National Guard was incorporated into the command structure and every company on the planet began producing anything of military value. And as we have seen in the Reunification War it doesn't take much to turn a truck into a light missile carrier. Though I doubt this is something that is nationwide. After all a lot of planets are probably not able to build such a defense especially the backwater one on Periphery borders or planets that are only marginaly habitable. That might be a good place to entrap an enemy but not for long guerilla campaigns

[wantec]

I doubt the Wolves or Falcons had similar plans but again it could explain how some of their former holdings managed to raise an armed force so easily.

The Falcons may have had one in general, but I can't see it ever getting used during Malvina's time as Khan. The Wolves have done something like that, offering warrior caste washouts a 2nd Trial of Position to fill vehicle/garrison units when the touman was low. They did it when they jump from the OZ to the Wolf Empire territory, they offered the former Marik and Lyran citizens touman spots, usually on the other side of the Wolf Empire so they could keep fighting their old enemies, just under a new banner.

[tassa_kay]

The Falcons may have had one in general, but I can't see it ever getting used during Malvina's time as Khan. The Wolves have done something like that, offering warrior caste washouts a 2nd Trial of Position to fill vehicle/garrison units when the touman was low.

Malvina did the exact same thing in "A Rending of Falcons".

[Jellico]

The Falcons may have had one in general, but I can't see it ever getting used during Malvina's time as Khan. The Wolves have done something like that, offering warrior caste washouts a 2nd Trial of Position to fill vehicle/garrison units when the touman was low. They did it when they jump from the OZ to the Wolf Empire territory, they offered the former Marik and Lyran citizens touman spots, usually on the other side of the Wolf Empire so they could keep fighting their old enemies, just under a new banner.

In FM3145 Malvina was grabbing anyone with an interest in being a warrior and shoving them in a tank regardless of their providence. Gotta get your cannon fodder somewhere.

[wantec]

Whoops guessed I missed that. I didn't think she'd stoop that far, but vehicle crews are vehicle crews to most Clanners.

[tassa_kay]

Whoops guessed I missed that. I didn't think she'd stoop that far, but vehicle crews are vehicle crews to most Clanners.

She actually picked that trick up from the Horses, after observing firsthand how well their castes intermingled and worked together. It was also a power move against Jana Pryde, something she was doing to stir up sentiment against her during the Rending.

[Tyler Jorgensson]

Random interlude: our Capital in the Homeworld was Arcadia right? I remember we held the Toshaka Mech Works Factory and parts of Bearclaw with the Ravens but our capital was on Arcadia right?

[tassa_kay]

Random interlude: our Capital in the Homeworld was Arcadia right? I remember we held the Toshaka Mech Works Factory and parts of Bearclaw with the Ravens but our capital was on Arcadia right?

That was always my assumption, but I'll be damned if I can actually find something in print that confirms it!  ;D

[Decoy]

Sarna tells me that Bearclaw was the capitol when the Bears were in the Homeworlds. IIRC Arcadia was one of the few places they kept before the reaving and after their move so...

[tassa_kay]

Sarna tells me that Bearclaw was the capitol when the Bears were in the Homeworlds.

Beware Sarna and those uncited sources.

[CJC070]

The Dominion Council Hall is in Alshain (source Dark Age: Touring the Stars 3130)

Rascalhague is where the Executive is (source unknown)

[tassa_kay]

He means before the move to Alshain/the Inner Sphere.

[CJC070]

He means before the move to Alshain/the Inner Sphere.

Thanks for the correction and actually found a credited source
Field Manual: Warden Clans pg. 88 identifies Alshain as the capital of Clan Ghost Bear.

[tassa_kay]

Thanks for the correction and actually found a credited source
Field Manual: Warden Clans pg. 88 identifies Alshain as the capital of Clan Ghost Bear.

That's still post-migration to the Inner Sphere. We're talking about before that time.

[Motpart]

Looking through Dominions Divided again, and taking together all the great amounts of spontaneous violence and dissent that comes from opposing views, the simmering tensions lying dormant underneath the surface, that have been briefly bottled up into an unwatched pressure cooker by a 'quick and easy' campaign against the Combine, which has a clear means of both escalating and going extremely badly, extremely quickly, in a political, economic and military sense, whilst also adding in the prospect of armed Rasalhagian conscripts;

I'd rather the consequences of this misadventure are more genuinely serious in a follow-up outcome than not; like, not discounting irrevocably breaking the Dominion apart in an actual civil war/revolt into their own radicalised Rasalhague and Bear factions-style serious.

It's my opinion, but I think it'd provide more fresh air, and fertile grounds going forward for both Rasalhague and Bears, both in and out of fiction.