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B. As much as I love the idea of the Free Worlds League gaining more people to shout NO YOU at, I cannot imagine Caesar Steiner believing that anyone other than he should be negotiating.
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May 23, 2015 18:27
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B is clearly the Maximum Battletech option. Caesar believes in himself, who believes in you. I wouldn't trust Myndo Waterley to throw out the garbage without somehow sparking a revolution or three. So I guess C would be the most Battletech option, but Caesar owns so.
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May 23, 2015 18:50
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Voting with the Bandwagon.
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May 23, 2015 19:45
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By my counting thus far B is winning by a landslide with 37 votes, followed by D with 7 votes, with C coming out in third with 2 votes and poor old A coming in last place with 0 votes!
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May 23, 2015 19:47
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Despite how many fantastic things went down, my favorite part of the update was still the Clan Admiral requesting a tacit suicide after committing atrocities.
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May 23, 2015 19:52
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I vote for A, because I don't understand any of the options really, but no option should have zero votes.
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May 23, 2015 20:00
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Keru posted:I wouldn't trust Myndo Waterley to throw out the garbage without somehow sparking a revolution or three. "And then they all conversed reasonably, related to to the issues of the others, made concessions and finally found a mutually agreeable peace settlement which lasted for decades without anyone needing to get out their giant stompy robot and shoot lightning about." Yeah, no thanks. I'd rather read about desperate last stands and point blank AC20 headshots while hiding in nearly collapsing buildings.
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May 23, 2015 21:01
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Preechr posted:Myndo Waterly is one of those people who thinks they're super-devious, but are actually incredibly predictable and get played by actual devious people constantly. OTL, as Precenter Dieron she fell for pretty much everything Hanse Davion pulled and was instrumental in his successes during the 4th Succession War, but she managed to make it look like it was all Primus Tiepolo's fault and took his jerb after provoking him into an aneurysm. In the 3050 era as Primus, she tried to pull some more shenanigans but was completely oblivious that the new Precentor Dieron was stabbing her in the back, leading to Comstar's power being broken and yet another Precenter Dieron becoming Primus after betraying their predecessor. Why, it's almost like she and the Steel Vipers were made for each other. 
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May 23, 2015 21:17
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PoptartsNinja posted:Why, it's almost like she and the Steel Vipers were made for each other. You've sold me. Option C, please--involving Waterly prominently in this can only lead to amazing/hilarious things.
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May 23, 2015 21:30
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Endomorphic posted:Isn't that the point though? We're not in this thread to see successful negotiations. It while there's less shooting now, it probably leads to the Clans imploding in an orgy of violence that makes the invasion to date look like a pirate raid.
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May 23, 2015 21:36
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Voyager I posted:Despite how many fantastic things went down, my favorite part of the update was still the Clan Admiral requesting a tacit suicide after committing atrocities. Yeah, makes the situation rather obvious. I have to say I'm not sure that clanners and especially windowmakers would try to sugarcoat their atrocities rather than be proud of their glorious strength.
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May 23, 2015 21:45
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Endomorphic posted:Isn't that the point though? We're not in this thread to see successful negotiations. Eh, if I wanted characters making dumb, out-of-character decisions motivated by the story's need to go from war to war with little to no break in between I can read the official material. You can have conflict by having antagonists who are smart and accomplish things instead of having protagonists take actions that don't make any sense. Defiance Industries fucked around with this message at 22:03 on May 23, 2015 |
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May 23, 2015 21:57
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Is B gonna get all the cool IS peeps killed/give the rear end in a top hat Clanners an advantage? 
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May 24, 2015 01:33
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A Vote for B is a vote for clans being less stupid. Death to "all powerful moron" antagonists.
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May 24, 2015 02:18
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SIGSEGV posted:Yeah, makes the situation rather obvious. I have to say I'm not sure that clanners and especially windowmakers would try to sugarcoat their atrocities rather than be proud of their glorious strength. They might have a stupid culture and have tampered wildly with genetics, but the Clans are still made up of human beings. If anything, some Clanners might be especially vulnerable since Clan culture promotes an idealized image of war between people bred for the task, following arcane honor rules - the bloody reality of mowing down hapless conscripts and flattening cities is somewhat less appealing. One of the Clans' biggest weaknesses and points of interest is they're completely unprepared for total war. They have these dreams of rebuilding the Star League or taking revenge on the Sphere, but they're all grounded in a mythical understanding of the past with surprisingly little thought given to how they're going to carry it out. The structure of the invasion itself is absurd, about as inefficient as it is possible for an invasion to be. Absolutely the only two things they have up on the Inner Sphere is a concrete technological advantage and boatloads of psychotic drive, but they were really just lucky the Inner Sphere was as ripe for conquest as it is - if the Star League had reformed in their absence they'd be destroyed on contact and still probably rush into it gladly.
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May 24, 2015 03:30
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When do we get to deploy an idiot who controls his battlemech with a guitar so we can win this culture war?
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May 24, 2015 13:29
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goatface posted:When do we get to deploy an idiot who controls his battlemech with a guitar so we can win this culture war? We should totally have another pirate mission with a custom vehicle that's basically this: 
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May 24, 2015 13:43
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goatface posted:When do we get to deploy an idiot who controls his battlemech with a guitar so we can win this culture war? Col. Bluegrass as a MechWarrior? I'm down with that. 
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May 24, 2015 14:09
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Dolash posted:They might have a stupid culture and have tampered wildly with genetics, but the Clans are still made up of human beings. If anything, some Clanners might be especially vulnerable since Clan culture promotes an idealized image of war between people bred for the task, following arcane honor rules - the bloody reality of mowing down hapless conscripts and flattening cities is somewhat less appealing. I guess you're right. Clan culture is so hilariously hosed up, it's great.
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May 24, 2015 18:06
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I hope the thread gets to play as the Goliath Scorpions and airdrop Elementals onto Widowmaker mechs soon.
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May 24, 2015 18:32
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I love that the Clans think taking Terra means everyone else will bow down in acknowledgement of them as masters of the universe just because they tagged home base.
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May 24, 2015 19:09
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The probable result of the IS failing to do so is a less organized Jihad, for largely the same reason; violent WMD temper tantrum. Planetary bombardments ahoy.
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May 24, 2015 19:25
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Thought the thread would enjoy some pics of the local MechCorps pods today Mechs at Houston Comicpalooza I love seeing these guys every year!
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May 24, 2015 19:35
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Gotta go with choice B. You teased us about this three and a half years ago, I want to see a clan-style family reunion.
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May 24, 2015 21:16
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Mentioning the Star Admiral reminds me, how exactly is anyone mounting a credible counter-offensive of any kind when surely the Clans have complete space supremacy over the Inner Sphere? The disparity in their warships is even greater than their mechs, so far as I know, how would an Inner Sphere invasion force make it past the Clan front lines or land on a planet they have under siege? In fact, what's stopping them from just cruising straight to Earth to nuke it flat instead of stopping and fighting it out at each world along the way? Also, how much damage would destroying Comstar and Earth do to the Inner Sphere? Presumably that'd bring down their whole communication infrastructure, right?
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May 24, 2015 21:49
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Dolash posted:Mentioning the Star Admiral reminds me, how exactly is anyone mounting a credible counter-offensive of any kind when surely the Clans have complete space supremacy over the Inner Sphere? The disparity in their warships is even greater than their mechs, so far as I know, how would an Inner Sphere invasion force make it past the Clan front lines or land on a planet they have under siege? In fact, what's stopping them from just cruising straight to Earth to nuke it flat instead of stopping and fighting it out at each world along the way? Regarding your first question: a nuclear weapon impacting on a WarShip hull kills a WarShip. Yes, even the Succession War-level nukes that the Houses and Periphery Powers currently have. The IS powers are reluctant to employ nukes against space targets due to possible reprisal against JumpShips, but if all you do with WarShips is jump into system, start burning towards the inhabited world and glass it, you give them no other option but to start using the (startlingly widespread) nuclear stockpiles. Delivering a nuclear payload via fighter is fairly doable since Clan warships, like the Star League hulls they are built from, have utter poo poo for fighter defense and just get shredded by fighters en masse. Also, the Clans in canon as well as in this game seem more interested in using the WarShips as command posts rather than offensive weapons. They're not about winning, they're about showing off and there are no WarShips for them to fight. Also, most Clan leaders are MechWarriors or pilots and need the opportunity to lead from the front. If they are cruising around shooting people from space rather than mixing it up, they're jeopardizing their leadership positions by looking like scared bitches instead of badasses, and all it takes to get a Khan out of office is to claim that he is not bad rear end. And Terra is the central node for the HPG network, but it can be circumvented fairly easily, as was the case in 2901 when the Primus of ComStar lost his poo poo. The rest of ComStar rerouted HPG traffic around it, through the literal first circuit of HPGs on New Earth, Procyon, Dieron, Barnard and Alpha C. Essentially HPG networks are like a spiderweb rather than an organizational flowchart and the only way you're going to totally knock out communications is to destroy every Class A HPG until there are none within a hundred LY of each other. Even still, the Great Houses existed for centuries before the introduction of the HPG and they'd revert to the JumpShip courier system, which is far less efficient but still workable. Defiance Industries fucked around with this message at 22:06 on May 24, 2015 |
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May 24, 2015 22:04
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Dolash posted:Mentioning the Star Admiral reminds me, how exactly is anyone mounting a credible counter-offensive of any kind when surely the Clans have complete space supremacy over the Inner Sphere? The disparity in their warships is even greater than their mechs, so far as I know, how would an Inner Sphere invasion force make it past the Clan front lines or land on a planet they have under siege? In fact, what's stopping them from just cruising straight to Earth to nuke it flat instead of stopping and fighting it out at each world along the way? It would do a lot of damage, though I doubt just destroying Earth would be enough to take all of CS down. And while it would be a massive economic hit, it has been shown before that crafty use of jumpships is enough to at least keep your state afloat, if not super competitive. That sort of gets messed around with in regards to the Jihad era, but overall: It'd be a blow, but not the most decisive one. Especailly if the CS not squashed yet just set up a new base of operations someplace with good relays.
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May 24, 2015 22:05
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evilmiera posted:It would do a lot of damage, though I doubt just destroying Earth would be enough to take all of CS down. And while it would be a massive economic hit, it has been shown before that crafty use of jumpships is enough to at least keep your state afloat, if not super competitive. That sort of gets messed around with in regards to the Jihad era, but overall: It'd be a blow, but not the most decisive one. Especailly if the CS not squashed yet just set up a new base of operations someplace with good relays. Such a blow would probably also cause the ComGuard to 'discover' a couple of their WarShip fleets that are hanging around places like Lyuten 128.
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May 24, 2015 22:19
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The Clans aren't about to indulge in WarShip bombardments unless something makes them afraid or pissy; for dozens of citations, see "Wars of Reaving," aka "the Home Clan Manual of Atrocities for Funsies."
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May 24, 2015 22:29
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goatface posted:When do we get to deploy an idiot who controls his battlemech with a guitar so we can win this culture war? The real trick is to deploy 'Mechs supported by the vocal stylings of a teen pop idol broadcast on an open channel.
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May 24, 2015 22:34
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The real question is why are they conquering anything at all. First one to take Terra? 1. Load up touman on all your dropships/jumpships. Bring warships. 2. Go to Terra. 3. Take Terra. (Or die trying) Because your jumps can't be contested. By anything. Bring lasers and enough food and water and this won't be an issue. Or are canned goods/MREs lostech?
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May 24, 2015 22:58
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Can they even transport enough people quickly enough to make an attempt of it? Can they do that for ANY planet? I thought their big ships were small in their bigness.
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May 24, 2015 23:14
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Affi posted:The real question is why are they conquering anything at all. With the number of jumps required wouldn't it still take many, many months to get there from the edge of the IS? Sarna says it's between 7-9 days per jump, and sooner or later if you tried that Comstar's going to scatter a bunch of nukes around your emergence point. HPG travels faster than Warship.
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May 24, 2015 23:30
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Z the IVth posted:HPG travels faster than Warship. I thought they were stationary installations.* * Not Clan HPGs, which are twice as mobile while being half as suitable for stupid jokes.
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May 24, 2015 23:53
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Affi posted:The real question is why are they conquering anything at all. The Clans are stupid but not that stupid. So you've brought lasers, food, and water. Can you hold Terra with absolutely no supply lines, no knowledge of whether any factories even survived on Terra, and no way to replenish your armor or BattleMechs? Also they're doing it for bragging rights. The Clan who takes the most worlds gets Kudos when they do hit Terra. And what happens when your 300 year old McKenna or Sovetskii Soyuz blows its jump drive hopping through a lifeless system? It's much better to have that happen somewhere where you probably have a reliable food source while you wait a year for a new one to be brought from the Homeworlds. goatface posted:Can they even transport enough people quickly enough to make an attempt of it? Can they do that for ANY planet? I thought their big ships were small in their bigness. The biggest ones aren't that small. 
PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 00:39 on May 25, 2015 |
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May 25, 2015 00:34
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One of those is what, maybe 10,000 people? Probably a lot less because it's meant to be all engine. That's not a lot of people to be attacking a planet of billions with if you plan on doing anything other than glassing it from orbit. edit - That's not exactly a uniquely battletech problem though. There's gently caress all sci-fi that ever addresses the problem of shifting large numbers of people around. edit 2 - Well, apart from the stuff that uses wormholes which allow you to just drive from one planet to another. goatface fucked around with this message at 00:49 on May 25, 2015 |
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May 25, 2015 00:45
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Hasn't Myndo Waterley been out of contact with ComStar since she was captured by Hell's Horses way back when (or at least out of the leadership decision making process since before the master took over/Primus Tiepolo's death)? Also I thought all the ComGuard regiments/personnel were recalled back to Terra in political update 5?
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May 25, 2015 01:49
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Correct.
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May 25, 2015 02:40
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Voyager I posted:Despite how many fantastic things went down, my favorite part of the update was still the Clan Admiral requesting a tacit suicide after committing atrocities. I like it, though to contrast canon, did they mention anything about the captain/admiral responsible for Turtle Bay?
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May 25, 2015 02:41
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Affi posted:Because your jumps can't be contested. By anything. Except for mining the jump points (most systems have fairly few stable jump points and by the time you've jumped through eight or nine times, ROM already knows and they're preparing a welcome mat) or the systems that have repaired SDS systems. Like Terra, for instance. The WoB had to sneak onto the planet with the 21st Centauri Lancers ruse for a very good reason. Weissritter posted:I like it, though to contrast canon, did they mention anything about the captain/admiral responsible for Turtle Bay? If I recall, resorting to orbital bombardment because he had hosed up repeatedly in his attempts to catch Hohiro Kurita basically shamed him out of the Warrior caste. It wasn't even blasting the city, though, it was that he failed so many times at his mission.
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May 25, 2015 03:10
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