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I'll just throw in a pity vote for A: Comstar, since as hilarious as the clans would be I can't bring myself to vote for them.
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Nov 14, 2015 22:07
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Zaodai posted:This is an interesting vote. *snip* I really like the way this explanation was laid out. It sounds like Duncan has money and connections but no assets, and its a question of how to best exchange one for another to get his kid back. Comstar are right bastards that everyone uses because there's no alternative, but they're still bastards. They're the faction you go 'hey, thanks for giving me the news, and I'm putting together a rescue operation. Is there anything I can help you out with - or stay away from - while I'm in the area? You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours', without actually getting anywhere near covering your back. Hanse davion is the faction you go to and be like "Hey, I've got a big issue and while we're not exactly friends, you respect how important family is, and you have a brilliant strategic mind. Can I buy a consult from you?" The red corsair's been covered pretty heavily. And then there's the Clans. The thing is, in the Inner Sphere, when you're putting together a VIP hostage rescue operation you don't use battlemechs. You get extraction teams, air support, fast-moving transports. Mechs are good diversions, but you want swat teams and security details to get a person out safely. When that's what you're looking for, the clans offer something you can't get anywhere else: Highly trained, ridiculously equipped, elementals are pretty much the ultimate commandoes. The IS doesn't have anything that can compare, and the clans don't even care about their secondary forces(much) because of their warrior culture glorifying mechs. As oddball and audacious as it is, what you really want to do is march up to the clans and say "Hey, hey, I hear you have a big ol warrior culture based on respect and using appropriate force for a task, AND a bunch of units who's whole purpose is to die in battle to maybe redeem themselves because you don't even want them. SO I've got a problem, and I'd like to fight you for them" Throw a Trial of POssession at them(the planets you're going to lose anyway can be offered as collateral. If you win, you get forces, if you lose, you get a buffer) - Hells Horses come to mind - just to get them to listen to what you really want: Elementals, Vehicles, combined arms. This is especially up the Horse's alley as they would jump at the chance to prove their oddball force configuration to the other clans in battle, double so if it is on someone else's dime, triple if it doesn't really take a huge committment of forces they care for. Clantech rescue squad under an IS leader who understands war more than zellbrigen? Amazing potential. "Hey, Khan, some inner worlder wants to fight us for elementals and tanks" "what? Why? Are they nuts?" I know this isn't going to win, but I seriously love the idea of doing something we haven't seen in thread before: the 'oh god elementals' effect in the hands of players. Clans getting a taste of learning how to fight like the sphere - alongside one of them, not against. Actual combined arms tactics. The looks on Carlos face when he's bailed out by THESE jerks. Actual combined arms strategies with mechs backed up by other units. Marik owing the clans a favor is Interesting, as is the possibility of claiming IS people back from the clans along with whomever else he gets. It would be really interesting if the lost steiner heir ends up in his hands, we haven't seen him for a while. Wasn't he with the steel vipers? Ask the Clans for Help.
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Nov 14, 2015 22:13
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E I love the clans from the original universe and PTN's universe is even better so really look forward to seeing more clan action.
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Nov 14, 2015 22:25
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sheep-dodger posted:What's the inheritance status for Melissa like? Is she, as in the canon, heir apparent to the Commonwealth, or only Skye after its secession? I don't recall what old hatchet-face Nondi is up to but, if she or her kids Lisa and Ivan stayed in the LC, they would probably be the assumed heir. If House Steiner of Gallery followed Melissa (or have been wiped out in the fighting with the Clans, since all of them are in the LCAF) then Frederick's closest living relative outside of Skye is his second cousin Caesar... who, yeah, is with the Vipers. e: Or maybe his fourth-cousin Roman but then you're getting into trash Steiners who basically aren't even nobility.
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Nov 14, 2015 22:47
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E
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Nov 14, 2015 22:47
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LeadSled posted:Clan NO YOU SHUT UP So, Clan Amethyst Mandrill.
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Nov 14, 2015 22:52
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I made a thing for the BattleTech forums. I figured you'd get a kick out of it too (watch the FWL borders) 
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Nov 14, 2015 23:05
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rip rasalhague republic. you were to good for this sphere.
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Nov 14, 2015 23:21
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PoptartsNinja posted:I figured you'd get a kick out of it too (watch the FWL borders) They basically never change? That was what I got out of it.
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Nov 14, 2015 23:38
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They eat a huge chunk of their neighbors and then say "Yup, we're satisfied with this. Have fun murdering each other you idiots."
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Nov 14, 2015 23:40
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TheParadigm posted:I really like the way this explanation was laid out. It sounds like Duncan has money and connections but no assets, and its a question of how to best exchange one for another to get his kid back. Actually, most clans consider Elementals to be honorable warriors just like Mechwarriors. They don't fill the same niche, but they get a ton of respect. Part of that is because if you challenge them to a trial, they can pick an unarmed duel to settle it and then beat your rear end. In a society that is built entirely around respecting genetic purity and raw power, being a genetically engineered wall of muscle gets you a long way. There are even a couple of Elemental saKhans, if I recall. And I think the Smoke Jags had one for Khan, though that's not necessarily proving that it's a good idea  . Speaking of Lincoln Osis, his name always ends up as Lincoln Osiris in my head now. He's a lead farmer, motherfucker!
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Nov 15, 2015 00:14
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The angle I was also getting was, uh. Solahma units? Garrison, rearguard, stick-em-in-a-hunchback types? Wouldn't they share similar duties/roles by association, if not prestige? Those dont-wannems.
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Nov 15, 2015 00:20
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TheParadigm posted:The angle I was also getting was, uh. Solahma units? Garrison, rearguard, stick-em-in-a-hunchback types? Wouldn't they share similar duties/roles by association, if not prestige? Those dont-wannems. They might, but the fluff already said Marik doesn't want to hire a bunch of shitters to go after his son. It's why he didn't just hire all the merc dregs left over and throw them at the planet. Speaking of mercenaries, this would have been a good time to consider hiring our friends at the whatever-Youngblood mercenary corporation. They're unproven, they've gotta be cheap!
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Nov 15, 2015 00:53
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TheParadigm posted:The angle I was also getting was, uh. Solahma units? Garrison, rearguard, stick-em-in-a-hunchback types? Wouldn't they share similar duties/roles by association, if not prestige? Those dont-wannems. I doubt there's any Clanner over 28 in the Inner Sphere ranked below Galaxy Commander. The right to be here was fiercely fought over at every level and then the survivors fought over who got to go where.
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Nov 15, 2015 00:59
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PoptartsNinja posted:They eat a huge chunk of their neighbors and then say "Yup, we're satisfied with this. Have fun murdering each other you idiots." It's funny that in this setting having attainable and realistic goals is seen as weakness. Considering the costs of war they're probably the only ones to come out ahead in that entire period.
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Nov 15, 2015 01:34
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A point of elementals is 5 of them, but how do they balance for mech weight? Like, 5 elementals is easily worth more than a firemoth but not a warhawk.
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Nov 15, 2015 02:37
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Zaodai posted:They might, but the fluff already said Marik doesn't want to hire a bunch of shitters to go after his son. It's why he didn't just hire all the merc dregs left over and throw them at the planet. I vote Y, for Youngblood. Lets have this fledgling merc outfit prove itself in a soon to be irradiated wasteland.
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Nov 15, 2015 02:42
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TheParadigm posted:
There's a problem with this though: Carlos hasn't actually been captured. In fact, if he HAD been captured, it's very doubtful that Marik would be considering any of this at all, for too many reasons to list. Point is, what Marik needs right now isn't a SWAT team, but a Panzer Corps: people who can push from the FWL territory straight through to the occupied planet Carlos is on, and hold it while the FWL troops catch up. Marik can't just go the planet, grab Carlos, and run: he has to make a rescue operation look like a counter attack for political reasons. Luckily for both of them, the whole planet just became a symbol of Capellan oppression, so it's a logical target for a campaign.
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Nov 15, 2015 03:22
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It's also currently reeling some from losing a shitload of mechs, tanks, and troops to spitenukes and badass guerrilla heroes.
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Nov 15, 2015 03:23
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Night10194 posted:It's also currently reeling some from losing a shitload of mechs, tanks, and troops to spitenukes and badass guerrilla heroes. But that's not timely information due to the whole "melting the HPG" thing.
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Nov 15, 2015 03:25
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Just tell the clans they can keep what they take in the Capellan Confederation. There you go, solved two problems with half a stone.
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Nov 15, 2015 03:26
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Saint Celestine posted:Just tell the clans they can keep what they take in the Capellan Confederation. There you go, solved two problems with half a stone. Which sounds great until they take Carlos Marik.
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Nov 15, 2015 03:27
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The Clans are the last people I'd turn to for any sort of special forces/black ops sort of work. The Clan Watch (Clan Watches?) makes SAFE look competent.
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Nov 15, 2015 03:27
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wiegieman posted:A point of elementals is 5 of them, but how do they balance for mech weight? Like, 5 elementals is easily worth more than a firemoth but not a warhawk. Not all points are created equal. There's a whole etiquette based around who you challenge and so on. Remember that the Clan warriors are basically all motivated to show off at every chance possible. If a point of elementals challenges a Masakari pilot, the Masakari pilot knows that it doesn't mean poo poo if he just smashes them all with everything he has. He might (as we saw in the case of a Black Hawk pilot on Somerset years ago) bid away the use of one of his arms to make the fight more challenging, and thus look better on his metaphorical resume, or he might challenge additional units and invite them to gang up on him. It's not dishonorable if the other person asks you to do it and you take advantage of their stupidity, after all. Pussy Cartel posted:The Clans are the last people I'd turn to for any sort of special forces/black ops sort of work. The Clan Watch (Clan Watches?) makes SAFE look competent. When the Dragoons said "they don't challenge people to duels or bid or anything like that" the Watch said "no way you lie."
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Nov 15, 2015 03:55
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:Which sounds great until they take Carlos Marik. Think of the long game. Carlos will get captured, the clans wont know who he is, he'll learn their ways, win some trials, become khan, and then when it all falls to poo poo, he'll lead his clan-in-exile to the border of FWL space in former Capellan territory.
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Nov 15, 2015 03:56
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Your dream scenario of a Khan Carlos [insert painfully contrived bloodname for any given Clan here]/Marik/[seeprevious]/Marik sounds appealingly ridiculous and I'm a little sad that the die has already been cast.
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Nov 15, 2015 04:01
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Defiance Industries posted:Not all points are created equal. There's a whole etiquette based around who you challenge and so on. Remember that the Clan warriors are basically all motivated to show off at every chance possible. If a point of elementals challenges a Masakari pilot, the Masakari pilot knows that it doesn't mean poo poo if he just smashes them all with everything he has. He might (as we saw in the case of a Black Hawk pilot on Somerset years ago) bid away the use of one of his arms to make the fight more challenging, and thus look better on his metaphorical resume, or he might challenge additional units and invite them to gang up on him. It's not dishonorable if the other person asks you to do it and you take advantage of their stupidity, after all. He could also just bum a lesser mech off somebody else. Clan 'mechs are owned by the Clan. If Star Colonel Jackass wants to borrow a light 'mech for his duel, he's probably going to get one. It makes for a better show.
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Nov 15, 2015 04:12
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I always thought the Cloud Cobra Watch should be an effective, if high-casualty, arm, what with the Mannix bloodname. I imagine their operatives have plaid power armor.
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Nov 15, 2015 04:18
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Defiance Industries posted:When the Dragoons said "they don't challenge people to duels or bid or anything like that" the Watch said "no way you lie." Of all the implausible things in the Clans, one of the most egregious to me is the idea that they ever thought - to any extent - that the Inner Sphere would work according to their honour rules and weird made-up language. It's already part of their founding myth that the Clans were exiles and created their rules during said exile, how could they have possibly gotten it into their heads that showing up in the Sphere for a surprise attack and demanding House nobles to bid against the invasion force would've made sense to them? Or that playing according to their rules while fighting the Sphere would ever make sense? Groups being set back by their internal rules and by their enemies learning said rules to exploit them happens all the time in history, but this is something else entirely. The Clans were lucky as hell their technology advanced while the Sphere's collapsed because nothing else, like strategic insight, logistical sense or the rest was underpinning their success.
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Nov 15, 2015 04:24
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Zaodai posted:He could also just bum a lesser mech off somebody else. Clan 'mechs are owned by the Clan. If Star Colonel Jackass wants to borrow a light 'mech for his duel, he's probably going to get one. It makes for a better show. Also that. I was assuming that the challenge happened in the midst of a larger engagement. Dolash posted:Of all the implausible things in the Clans, one of the most egregious to me is the idea that they ever thought - to any extent - that the Inner Sphere would work according to their honour rules and weird made-up language. It's already part of their founding myth that the Clans were exiles and created their rules during said exile, how could they have possibly gotten it into their heads that showing up in the Sphere for a surprise attack and demanding House nobles to bid against the invasion force would've made sense to them? Or that playing according to their rules while fighting the Sphere would ever make sense? The Clans were founded by a brain-damaged kid who made everything he didn't like against the law. Asa Taney is the ideal leader that Nicky K sought to create.
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Nov 15, 2015 04:29
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The lion's share of Clanners -- especially the successful ones -- are young, impulsive, close minded, and only good at one on one fights. That's their whole world.
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Nov 15, 2015 04:43
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The Clans basically have a police state that would make Romano Liao blush. Nicholas Kerensky almost certainly made sure to censor anything that might expose his subjects to tainted ideas like 'espionage' and 'combined arms' and 'democracy', doubly so after he made an example of the Wolverines. Just like how ComStar went from pretending to be religious to actually believing in their religious mysticism, the Clans went from using honor and dueling for a (somewhat plausible) reason to doing it because it's the only way they know or understand or even conceive of.
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Nov 15, 2015 05:18
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Defiance Industries posted:Asa Taney is the ideal leader that Nicky K sought to create. I googled Taney, but got nowhere enough detail. Someone please tell me how retarded this person was in canon.
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Nov 15, 2015 05:22
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GhostStalker posted:I googled Taney, but got nowhere enough detail. Someone please tell me how retarded this person was in canon. Khan of Clan Glorified Pirate Band, which became Clan Literal Pirate Band within 10 years of his impulsive backstabbing gutted the Clan and got himself murdered.
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Nov 15, 2015 05:46
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GhostStalker posted:I googled Taney, but got nowhere enough detail. Someone please tell me how retarded this person was in canon. His successor got the clan's entire military blown up in an ill-fated attempt to carve out an occupation zone from Jade Falcon space, and he's still usually the go-to guy for "dumb Ice Hellion."
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Nov 15, 2015 05:57
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The picture I got, based almost solely on the Wars of Reaving, was that Asa Taney was the beginning of the end for the Ice Hellions. He was a tremendous shitlord who reduced his clan to a (very fast) running joke. He was replaced by Raina Montose, who took that joke and ran it off a cliff, leading to the near-extermination of the clan. Her saKhan Connor Rood, possibly the one competent Ice Hellion leader, was basically Khan for a day after her death and took the survivors to the Goliath Scorpions. Who were also basically on the lam escaping the genocidal insanity gripping the Homeworlds and in no position to refuse having a Galaxy's worth of new troops dropped in their lap. I think he even managed to become vice prez of Escorpion Imperio? Basically, the Ice Hellions' one success story was surviving to be integrated with Clan Smoke Weederryday.
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Nov 15, 2015 05:58
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GenericServices posted:His successor got the clan's entire military blown up in an ill-fated attempt to carve out an occupation zone from Jade Falcon space, and he's still usually the go-to guy for "dumb Ice Hellion." He himself tried to Absorb Clans Jade Falcon and Wolf after the Refusal War. They managed to nearly reverse that with what amounted to a blanket call for treason among the homeworld Clans. His own SaKhan and huge swathes of the Ice Hellion military answered the call.
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Nov 15, 2015 06:00
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The reason Clan Ghost Bear uses so many Firemoths is to poo poo on Clan Ice Hellion's stupid Mad Max gimmick. In Clan Space, there was no one more hated than the Ice Hellions. To put that in perspective: both the Jade Falcons and Steel Vipers exist. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Nov 15, 2015 |
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Nov 15, 2015 06:01
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dis astranagant posted:He himself tried to Absorb Clans Jade Falcon and Wolf after the Refusal War. They managed to nearly reverse that with what amounted to a blanket call for treason among the homeworld Clans. His own SaKhan and huge swathes of the Ice Hellion military answered the call. PoptartsNinja posted:In Clan Space, there was no one more hated than the Ice Hellions. To put that in perspective: both the Jade Falcons and Steel Vipers exist. 
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Nov 15, 2015 06:04
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To elaborate further: the Ice Hellions weren't hated because they were good or dangerous. They were hated because feeling an alien emotion like "pity" made other Clanners feel uncomfortable.
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Nov 15, 2015 06:05
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