Shrapnel 18 - Hot Time in the Hinterlands

[Mendrugo]

With Hot Spots: Hinterlands set to drop in November, Shrapnel is getting in on the action with a Hinterlands-themed issue.  This thread is for commentary on the articles, fiction, and game features therein.

I'm just happy we now have an official logo for the Turkina Ascendancy!

[BaachicLitNerd]

My TRO entry in this issue is something I'm really proud of, writing and design wise, but it also has a bit of a circuitous production history that I feel like I should explain a bit. Eagle eyed readers will note that the TRO's Primary entry, for the TDK-7Z Thunder Hawk, was actually already published in Rec Guide 33 (though the two C3EM variants were not, and I love those in particular quite dearly. Why the repeat design?

Well, what had happened was... this entry was originally written for publication in January, in Shrapnel 16. Which meant Jymset and I had had our design discussions for it several months earlier, in October or November. Then Jymset was finalizing RecGuide 33 for its holiday release, and there was a last minute hole in the roster that needed to be filled. Jymset asked me if he could use the design in 33 with a shorter write up, and I readily agreed - it would only be out a few weeks before Shrapnel 16 hit, and there would be so much more in the Shrapnel piece. Then, just after RecGuide 33 was released, Phil made the (totally correct!) Decision to push the TRO entry back to issue 18 because it has a lot of Hinterlands hooks and this was going to be the Hinterlands issue to dovetail with the forthcoming Hot Spots Hinterlands. I stand by having it here in issue 18, amongst all the other wonderful Hinterlands work my fellow authors and creators did, and I hope everyone enjoys the entry and the new variants!

But if you're reading through and think to yourself "hey, wait, don't I know that wacky triple Thunderbolt-20 bomb on stilts from somewhere else...?" Then good eye, you totally do, and that's how it happened.

[nckestrel]

With Hot Spots: Hinterlands set to drop in November, Shrapnel is getting in on the action with a Hinterlands-themed issue.  This thread is for commentary on the articles, fiction, and game features therein.

I'm just happy we now have an official logo for the Turkina Ascendancy!

May it live long and pros....

[Swankmotron]

I was just really excited to get a chance to give folks another glimpse at what's going on with Callandre Kell on Arc-Royal.

[Mendrugo]

May it live long and pros....

Yep - the Turkina Ascendancy lasted for all of one page in Tamar Rising.

But, using the campaign laid out in Shrapnel #18, players can see if they can engineer a different outcome. 

I loved the ongoing campaign structure with flexible deployments from "The Fall of Terra," but the problem emerged that if one side outguessed the other, there'd be a huge force imbalance in any given scenario.  And then nothing prevented the outmaneuvered side from just walking off the map on turn 1 and hoping for a better outcome in the final battle, when all surviving units show up.  (As I discovered to my chagrin when I pulled a "Got you! Ha!" and my opponent just noped out immediately after I'd spent an hour setting up the maps.)

This campaign incorporates scouting, air superiority, and repair downtime, so players will have to strategically rotate their reserves into the fray, rather than always relying on their best Star.  Plus, this is, I believe, the first official scenario to include QuadVee deployments, for all the Horse fans who want to make the "transform and roll out" noise as they charge into battle.

[Critias]

I hope folks dig part two of Violent Inception, my serial novel introducing Mountain Wolf BattleMechs' sponsored merc outfit.  Part one introduced most of the characters and their broad situation (while hitting the Solaris theme of last issue), part two is a bit more backstory and explaining how they got into this situation in the first place, the idea behind the unit, etc, etc.

[Atlas3060]

I'm just glad I got to write about Antares. Originally I wrote a different draft but then Without Question released and two thoughts ran through my head:
"Oh that's nice Antares got mentioned"
"Oh nooooo, it got mentioned I hope my initial draft isn't so off the mark now!"
Thankfully I was able to correct and add on things for it. I also wanted to slip in that not all of Comstar's good deeds were just to get their name ingratiated with the populace. Sure that's always a good thing, but these guys were probably scouting old lostech rumors too.

[Lorcan Nagle]

For my part, I had this image in my head of a public debate on a planet recently conquered by the Falcons between someone who liked the new order and someone who wanted to return to Lyran space.  But then, looking at the map in Tamar Rising I found Blue Hole at this perfect intersection between three of the powers in the region and that allowed for more exploration of the pros and cons of each one - but Blue Hole had been in Jade Falcon hands for a century so I switched to a clandestine discussion via the Chatterweb. A quick reread of Tamar Rising gave me the popular uprising on Chapultepec as a nice little thing to stick in as a motivator.

[Mendrugo]

The same factors drew my eye to Blue Hole, making it an excellent locale for the Malthus Confederation to be in there stirring things up and being “helpful” to whichever side bids highest for their services.

[Caesar Steiner for Archon]

Saying that the Vesper Marches seem very unstable isn't really news, but I did like seeing how there were so many looming problems ready to blow up in Brewer's face. I think that place will be his grave but it'll be entertaining.

[Kit deSummersville]

I liked the Voices of the Inner Sphere article, especially the last commentor.
The Blue Hole article was good too, a typical Zoom meeting where nothing much gets accomplished.

[Wrangler]

I'm slowly 🐌 reading the book.  I died laughing at the C.U.P.P.S 2 entry .

[Arkansas Warrior]

I hope folks dig part two of Violent Inception, my serial novel introducing Mountain Wolf BattleMechs' sponsored merc outfit.  Part one introduced most of the characters and their broad situation (while hitting the Solaris theme of last issue), part two is a bit more backstory and explaining how they got into this situation in the first place, the idea behind the unit, etc, etc.

One small question there: isn’t Cameron O’Leary Brandon and Olivia’s son?  I think the story said at one point that Duke Alexander was her only son, which confused me.  Great story though, and the big reveal completely blindsided me.  Until it came out that Hannah was the Duke’s daughter, I was expecting that she was from Brandon’s side of the family and the Duke had it out for his half-siblings and their ilk.  (Though in hindsight, her surname is Rippon-Hart, so she obviously can’t be descended from Brandon, duh. [d’oh!])

[Critias]

Once upon a time, Alexander was her only son, so it was accurate (at the time).  He's also the one that's 'pure' highborn, what with being the scion of houses Rippon and Hart (along with his sister, but he's the eldest, so it's a special responsibility).

Cameron came along and got some screen time in Range War, in issue 16, and his position in the family is explained a bit more there.  As the son of Cameron O'Leary and the Duchess Olivia, he was never quite accepted by the snooty courtier-types on Vendrell, sadly including his elder (half) brother.  So as he was getting a little older, and trying to manage Alpheratz and Vendrell alike, Cameron kind of handed the reins of the Outworlds Alliance/Alpheratz side of things over to Cameron.  Cameron then chose to take the O'Leary name (so as not to offend the Lyran nobility, though surely some of them decided to take offense to that decision), as he stepped in as basically a Chief Operations Officer for Mountain Wolf BattleMechs, while his father remained the Chief Executive Officer (and handled the Lyran side of things, the politicking, etc).

...which is also, OOC-ly, my way to keep the O'Leary name (and noble house) alive, setting them up as cousins, and something of a cadet branch, to House Rippon-Hart.  Two branches of the family, largely acting independently, overseeing Mountain Wolf's two very different, and very distant, facilities.