/btg/ - BattleTech General

What are the internal dis-unifying factors here? Canonically, the Sandovals and the Haseks have huge hate-ons for their marchs' namesake enemies and the rest of the Suns resent getting drug into their chronically ill-fated adventurism. There's competition between marches for the nation's military and strategic assets, but what are the internal conflicts that get the average Joe-in-the-ice-tunnel on New Syrtis to hate his New Avallon counterpart. The FWL has all sorts of beefs between regions that only get put aside because the Lyrans will eat our children & the cappies will rape our pets if we don't stay together.

>ant-themed super hero!

Roach, actually.

>in 3028, the war starts. In 3029, as he's making solid gains, the economy collapses much harder than it did in-canon, to the point of open revolt.
Remember how Hanse's decision to send Justin to Solaris VII fucked up his surveillance of Lestrade's people, and almost cost him the alliance with the Lyrans? Let Melissa die and the Lyrans pull out of the war with their own crisis, there's no Lyran money to soften the economic blows, and nothing to draw the Dracs away from the Fed border anymore.

>ends the war with the Cappies with Hasek as the leader. Hanse abdicates/forced from the throne
Unlikely. If Hanse has a reputation for genius, it's because he's a trickster - Operation Rat and using Hasek against Max being the grandest examples of this - and his chief rival is Michael Hasek. If Hanse leaves the throne, Michael's son becomes First Prince, which is the only way the Capellan March gains enough strength to finish conquering the Confederation.

>and nothing to draw the Dracs away from the Fed border anymore.

Not so sure about that. Rule number one of the Dracs is that they always do the most retarded thing possible, so even in canon Takashi was crippling the Suns front by going after the Dragoons and the Dragoons only, while Theodore commanding the other half of the DCMS was busy derping so hard he lost almost as much territory as the Capellans to the Lyrans.

Things probably won't change too much there.

Hanse can also still slap the Capellans' shit in, but might have to stop after a few waves if he goes it alone to avoid the economic collapse.

The Fennec would have been great if it could torso twist. I love the basic lines of the design, and the two oversized flippy gun arms. But really, lack of torso twisting should be very rare, given how useful it is. It really only should have shown up on the cheapest 'Mechs in the earliest eras. As much as it pains me it also makes sense that the Vindicator lacks it, since it's meant to be cheap. That sort of thing.

I agree with basically this entire post. 3055 was a severe design miss, with a few exceptions. The War Dog should have been a FAR better 'Mech. It's not even designed for campaign play because frigging OS missile systems. I know RLs didn't exist yet but goddamn. I can buy the 5t of Gauss ammo but not those.

For me, it was the Koschei. It's... a Thunder. I don't ever recall reading anywhere that the Thunder was based on it either, so it's really disappointing. I love AC/10s and I'm a Cappie player so it was shit frosting on the puke sandwich that was Xin Sheng and the 'New Confederation'. The fluff for it even states that when it was re-introduced, nobody cared because XIN SHENG XIN SHENG FUCK THE SLAVS. It was literally a slap in the face to old-school Cappies in 'Mech form.

Why do people hate on warships so much in BT? I honestly like them because i want cool capital ship combat sometimes

Inability to just ignore the realities of warfare and enjoy some dumb fun. 'Mechs are supposed to be the key players in BattleTech, and anything that threatens that stance is anathema to a large part of this community. Since warships could basically subjugate planets on their own via orbital bombardment, they kind of cheapen ground warfare to several degrees. Sure you still need boots on dirt to actually hold territory, but you can pretty much remove all significant resistance through warship bombardment. This of course assumes that there are no enemy warships to counter your warships, so that creates a logic loop where warships become all-important in BattleTech warfare, and that goes against the spirit of the game, alongside advanced Vehicle rules and other stuff that makes 'Mechs less effective even if they aren't completely overshadowed (which Warships would basically do).

Essentially if FASA had been smart they would have made all the black water stuff a separate game not even in the same universe as BattleTech to keep these people from ever developing their hateboners for non-'Mech stuff in the first place. Or at least limiting their existence. It's not a problem if you never go into it or explain it, right? Warships existing in any number fucked things from the word go.

Problem is just stick your mechs around the factory they want/need to get a hold of and boom, you are good to go.

The Morrigan.

Such a great ancient name and it gets wasted on an absurd little light mech.

>even in canon Takashi was crippling the Suns front by going after the Dragoons and the Dragoons only
It is difficult to prosecute a two-front war, yes.

>while Theodore commanding the other half of the DCMS was busy derping so hard he lost almost as much territory as the Capellans to the Lyrans.
The Lyrans were fighting hard, yes, and managed to gain about as many worlds from the Dracs as they lost to the Dracs. So when the Lyrans let up - and they will, because they *aren't* winning and none of them wanted the war to begin with - that will free up troops and supplies for the Fed border.

>Rule number one of the Dracs is that they always do the most retarded thing possible
The Dracs, despite that "retardation," have held their own against the Suns for decades. Applying the same "retardation" when the enemy is weakened will be even more successful.

Morrigan agrees.

True, but then they just starve you out through blockade and leveling your agriculture, if you have any. It's basically a siege the attackers are almost always set up to win.

Of course, DropShips with nuclear weapons and/or a pocket full of rocks presents exactly the same setting-breaking problems, but everyone ignores *that* already

That's my point, ultimately; people have trouble ignoring things they don't like and expend way too much effort decrying them and denouncing everyone that doesn't think like they do. Of course, I realize the irony of this situation, and appreciate it, but it's pretty much impossible to critique something without having an opinion on it first, so c'est la vie. The main difference is I'm not telling them they're wrong and stupid, just pointing out that they do like they do.

tl;dr - play how you like, find a group that plays like you do, and ignore how everyone else does it because it doesn't affect your play

Lyrans wound up at like +57 worlds total in the 4th. The Dracs fought for shit. Takashi was only going to go after the Dragoons, and Theodore was only going to get pwned, FedCom or not.

The only reason the border looks static is that the next time we see the map the FRR is a thing.

The Dracs survive in spite of themselves. The overwhelming advantages of their opponents basically require their enemies to maximum derp just to avoid destruction.

I'm not sure why warships need to break the setting.

Like, remember how when ICBMs became a thing all war stopped on Earth because people could just ICBM each other? No?

Point of order, Teddy wasn't in charge of shit in terms of the Lyran front in the 4th War. He was just in charge of the Legion of Vega where his dad stuck him as punishment and had one regiment of Troops on Marfik where he got steamrolled by a force four times his size. Then when he escaped to Vega, he only held that world with the remaining two regiments of the LoV by tricking the massive Lyran force into retreat due to ninja shit in their back lines.

He didn't become Gunji no Kanrei until 3032 I think.

One could argue that the blockade could be run by smugglers, but since Jump signatures are so blatant, that's hard to justify. It's much easier for terrestrial allies to smuggle supply to each other without being struck in a terrestrial war than it is to get past a black water blockade in BattleTech. ICBMs do nothing to prevent Saudi Arabia from giving money and supply to Daesh.

Because space forces in the game were already determinate if there would be a ground fight or not. People in the 3rd War called assault dropships warships and that sort of thing worked fine.

True warships were only ever meant to be relics of Star League wonder like hollowed out moon bases and planetary climate mirror arrays.

Fun fact: there was a real life Black Dragon Society in Japan in the first half of the twentieth century, complete with paramilitary ultranationalism (though to my knowledge they didn't start a counter-reformist civil war).

Theodore was co-ordinating the most effective part of the defence and still got shit-stomped by the Lyrans.

It's honestly part of why the BDS can legitmately argue Theodore's reforms were retarded. Nothing he ever did in the 4th SW or War of 3039 accomplished anything, it was the old guard who fought better and did more. The Clans wrecked everyone no matter what, and then he invited foreigners in to fix everything because he had made the DCMS too weak to do its job.

And the Genyosha regiment was named for another Japanese ultranationalist secret society. They were really keen on those back then.

The thing about Dropships is that they are much easier to take out than actual Warships so they don't have same sort sense of threat attached to them as Warships have.

One thing that I've been thinking about: if a merc unit takes a contract with a FRR company, would it be subject to the reservation/"fuck you and fill these 12 forms to get a curry and a pint" treatment, or would the company treat them as fellow businessmen and, well, not be complete arses about it?

Instead of kill Melissa off, let Theodore get his hands on her, realize what he's got, and send her back to Katrina with a bow on her head and a cease-fire/border reset demand, and a personal note saying 'Davion knew about this but didn't stop it.' Keep the Lyrans focused on the FWL, let the Dracs murderboner the Davions, and the Capellans can go do whatever they feel like. It'd put Mel in charge to be a second proper Katrina when the Steiners have to go it alone against the Jade Falcons and Wolves; she'd have the throne then and it'd be the LCAF on its own.

There are pirate jump points for this very reason, there have been numerous shows of people jumping into a system undetected.

Which also blows the 3039 war, because "I'm not risking my daughter again to Hanse's mad schemes" and instead Katrina focuses on the League. Maybe some adventurism/skirmishing here and there between the LCAF and DCMS but nothing at all significant or like the original setting.

That also generally means the Lyran military is weighted away from the Clans when they show up...oops.

Battlebump

Oh hey, that's an idea. Not sure it would have the same fracturing effect though.

Fuck. ( here.) On that planet-counting point, I am an idiot. Don't know how I misremembered that - it's not the FRR, I've gone over that border before. Maybe they were doing better in the first half of the war? I might have to read this shit world-by-world to make it stick.

>Takashi was only going to go after the Dragoons, and Theodore was only going to get pwned, FedCom or not.
I'll grant you the internal politics would be the same. But not the logistics.

Having contracts with businesses instead of with planetary defense, and refusing to defend the planet in ways not covered by said contracts, is probably one of the things that got the FRR pissed off at mercs in the first place.

Shimmy, I could swear I've told you I have a day job now, so I'm not actually online during the day.

AFAIK the "merc reservations" are run by the Kungsarme, so if you're employed by a company you probably aren't going to get sent to one.

This is actually *very bad news* though since the whole point of the Reservations is sequestering mercs from the FRR populace who *really, really fucking hate mercs* and want to make them miserable.

Best-case scenario is that the company has its own facilities that the mercs can stay at and they basically get the benefits of a Reservation.

Worst-case scenario is that the mercs have to live among the populace and they spend their whole contract defending themselves from firebombings, accusations of theft/murder/rape, and general hostilities.

If I were a merc commander I wouldn't accept any contract in the FRR due to the conditions there.

>Maybe they were doing better in the first half of the war? I might have to read this shit world-by-world to make it stick.

The novels have them attacking the world the Kell Hounds are on and show a bit of Theo leading a defence. In the tiny little slice of the conflict we see I guess they don't go too badly, but most of the 4th SW outside of the Capellan front happens off-screen.

Sentinel and Champion look like misshapen eggs
Wyvern looks like a human. It's probably the most humanoid looking mech, and they call it the Wyvern

Heir to the Dragon had Teddy getting steamrolled and the only thing the counterattack he arranged behind his father's back accomplished was capturing Frederick Steiner.

The spoilsport move supported by Comstar was pushing the FRR independence in 3034 to fuck the Lyrans out of almost all their 4th SW gains on the Dracs since most of what they had was the RMD and the Dracs would lose less worlds in the deal, especially since the Dracs broke off the Alshain area to keeps some of the major industry. This was supposed to be a one-two punch to break Skye off the Lyrans with a similar independence movement and isolate the two halves of the Fedcom. But Hanse stepped in and crushed the hell out of Ryan's plans.

Yeah, I gotta break things earlier than that. Maybe Katrina just doesn't trust Hanse, especailly if he's supposed to be so hot-to-trot supersmart. Then again...

Timeline check. Melissa was on her way to New Avalon/Terra for the wedding when the Kell Hounds rescued her dropship. Okay, smash the Hounds, Teddy K captures Melissa herself. That blows the wedding timing, especially if she spends time as a political prisoner (looking at you, Fred Steiner) and throws off Hanse's bigass invasion.

Katrina wanted a PEACE accord, and Hanse slipped the war into the wedding very likely without her awareness. So now he kicks off the war (which was cocked and primed for the wedding and really is NOT going to be left hanging very well) while Melissa's in the hands of the Kuritans.

Hey, he just invaded the WRONG COUNTRY. His 18 year old Tharkad Waifu To Be is in Kurita hands and he's off invading the Liaos? Mommy's one and only Princess Is In Another Castle, still, and THEN Teddy K sends her home to mother - on a diplomatic transport, without any warning until it finally arrives at Tharkad. (Buying time) Delivers her home safe and sound and very strongly suggests the marriage be called off, because look at what a jagoff this Davion guy is, now I did something nice for oyu so you do something nice for me and leave my country alone for a while. I'm gonna go murderboner the Feds while they're still thinking the only theater is in Cappie space.

Alternatively, Hanse calls off the whole damn invasion, the war doesn't start until a year LATER, when he's finally managed to shift all his forces to the OTHER border, and meanwhile Melissa's returned home safe and sound. (continued)

Basically holding Melissa blows the timing of everything, because it's all based on her wedding to Hanse which /had/ to be that day so he could kick off his invasion. So screw that up, you screw up all kinds of stuff. Don't forget that, if Hanse moves all his forces to the draconis front, that means he's still pressganging all his jumpships and dropships and keeping them out of the civilian economy, smashing it pretty hard...and formenting all kinds of unrest. In the original timeline, wasn't he calling off the war because any further would have been catastrophic?

I dunno, this is all top-of-my-head shit prompted by the question. I've no idea how plausible or what kind of realistic take this could have, but I really like the idea of Teddy getting his hands on Melissa and blowing everyone's plans to hell.

I just want my independent steiner so it can get its ass kicked in '49...

>tfw Aaron Sandoval sends his son Jimmy on a secret raid into the Combine and rescues Melissa, where she falls in love with him.
>Hanse just rolls his forces into Operation Galahad 3 and launches the 4th War in 3029 on the Combine instead
>Aaron and Mike conspire to overthrow Hanse while the majority of the BoG and the Crucis Lancers are committed to the front
>They're successful
>Hanse goes into hiding in the Outback, Comstar scoops him up as the Precentor Marshal
>Jimmy on the throne
>Hasek takes the role of old man Aaron in the 3030's of warmonger for a Capellan campaign

It could get really crazy. People forget how volatile the Suns was back then.

Virtually every "weakness" of the Suns is something we're told rather than shown, then usually fixed straight away. Hasek is disloyal? NM, he's gone and his replacement is uber-loyal. Sandoval is a warmonger? DW, the Dracs are fucking useless so it doesn't matter.

oh i like you. that's funny; Hanse the Precentor Martial - and even funnier, WHICH Hanse? We've got a future-Master and his double going on.

Okay, so say Jimbo rescues Melissa - for shiggles, does HE marry her when Hanse is overthrown in 3030 or what? I just want Mel back where she belongs, not fucking up international politics.

He marries her but have Alesandro be successful in fucking Katrina over and the alliance falls apart amid the coup on Tharkad and Skye blowing it's top in rebellion at being grouped together with the Freedom and Dieron boys in the new Core Province.

It would be even better if you had a similar thing to Thomas. Have the fake Hanse running a proto-Filtvelt Coalition out by Broken Wheel while the real Hanse is brainwashed into Blakism.

Now, THAT'S comedy!

For extra added hilarity, have the cyborged-to-hell-and-gone carcass of Hanse be Tommy's right hand man when the Jihad rolls around.

It's even more appropriate when you realize how much of a tech worshipper old Hanse was in his early days. The Star League Library raid he used to found the NAIS is just one example.

Does anyone use anti-radiation missiles in battletech?

Fuck Skye, they don't deserve our germanic hotness. They can go except for Hesperus.

So how do we get the independent LCAF frisky with the FWL and starting some shit in the mid-late 30s, or even early 40s?

Generally no. Please don't ask why, it opens a can of worms on just how prevalent ECM is in BT, and the difference between the constant background ECM and dedicated modules.

Regulans. It fits their low tech filler units in the Johad and later against advanced tech enemies.

In general, they're fucking awesome against high tech units when you just got old tech. Kinda like Autocannon specialty ammo. Free nice upgrades to old and/or shit grogtech or retrotech machines.

Just have them hit when Janos has his stroke. The Border Protectorate are basically always in IMMINENT ELSIE INVASION MODE anyhow. I mean the First Protectorate Guard have a Zeus with a giant crosshair painted on it as their symbol.

>I'm now reminded that sarna doesn't even have articles for most of the lesser FWL states
How is this even fucking possible?

Is that just fluff or do they have rules to represent it? If so you you kindly point me to the correct pdf?

The rules for them are in TacOps

Perfect. Damn, now I need to come up with some Depurplefication Forces. Hm, Janos flat out buys it in the bombing in '35, that's a good year. Time to bust out Xotl's RATs!

Also I made this as the ultimate in table-flipping miniature-throwing bullshit. Thoughts?

It's better to ditch the CASE II and C3 to use a Tcomp + RISC Pulse Module instead for a flat -3 at any range. Nasty stuff. Also, put in a normal cockpit. The small isn't worth the penalty.

The Hyper Laser is vastly underrated as a flying mook gun. I hope to see something using it that way in IlClan.

Thanks

Okay this is the first time for me seeing this, what is a RISC Hyper Laser, and is it more munchie than a Clan ERPPC?

A 30 tonner with a RISC HL is some fucking bullshit. I'd smack you if you brought it to my table, you turbofaggot. Job well done.

20 damage at Lgauss ranges but explodes on rapid fire autocannon jam rolls.

I figure it's gonna blow the hell up sooner or later, so why not save the 'Mech at least - a ten point IS boom is goign to do some serious damage. CASE II at least keeps it reparable with only one IS point and a limited crit chance from that. Still, the pulse module on a hyperlaser, that's...impressive dickery.

What about 35 tons? You know a Hyper Laser is an ideal Panther refit.

You can always use reinforced structure instead. Makes the whole thing tougher too.

Ok, let me rephrase things:

RISC tech is bullshit and you're a faggot. You're my kinda faggot though. Carry on, cocksucker.

8 tons, 6 crits, 24 heat, 20 damage, range profile of an ERLL. Blows the fuck up on a 2 or 3.

My first turbofaggoting. I feel loved. And it's a 30 tonner with a RISC HL, 8/12/8 movement, and C3.

Then have a disposable RISC bug. Only 3.5 million cash.

Did that! My first try. Actually RISC HLs make fantastic HPPC swaps. Made a WVR-9M with a straight swap and a little more armor. Had to move one heat sink out of the right arm, but CASE II again just to keep shit alive.

Carrying on to the mighty end!

Sound like too many possible bad dice rolls to use effectively. Why was something this messed up even made?

Is this Orion salvageable?

Model: Orion - ON1-M
Pilot: Jimmy Ongeri (4/5)
--- Armor: 53/224-------------------------------------------
--- Internal: 68/114----------------------------------------
FRONT REAR INTERNAL
.../ 2\... .../**\... .../ 3\...
/xx| xx | 5\ /xx| 9 | 3\ /xx| 21 |16\
(xx). -- .( 2) ( | | ) (xx). -- .(12)
/ /\ \ / \ / /\ \
/xx.\/.32\ / \ /xx.\/.16\

-------------------------------------------------------------
Head : Life Support,Sensors,Standard Cockpit,Sensors,Life Support
Center Torso: Engine,Engine,Engine,Standard Gyro,Standard Gyro,*Standard Gyro
Standard Gyro,Engine,Engine,Engine,Narc,Narc
Right Torso : Engine,Engine,Engine,LB 10-X AC,LB 10-X AC,LB 10-X AC
LB 10-X AC,LB 10-X AC,LB 10-X AC,LB 10-X Cluster Ammo (9),LB 10-X AC Ammo (7),CASE
Left Torso : *Engine,*Engine,*Engine,*SRM 4,*LRM 20 Narc-capable Ammo (3),*LRM 20 Narc-capable Ammo (6)
*SRM 4 Narc-capable Ammo (0),*SRM 4 Narc-capable Ammo (25),*Narc Pods (2),*Narc Pods (6),*CASE
Right Arm : Shoulder,Upper Arm,Lower Arm,Medium Laser
Left Arm : *Shoulder,*Upper Arm,*Lower Arm,x LRM 20,x LRM 20,x LRM 20
x LRM 20,x LRM 20,x Medium Laser
Right Leg : Hip,Upper Leg,Lower Leg,Foot
Left Leg : *Hip,*Upper Leg,*Lower Leg,*Foot
-------------------------------------------------------------
LRM 20 Narc-capable Ammo: 3
LRM 20 Narc-capable Ammo: 6
SRM 4 Narc-capable Ammo: 0
SRM 4 Narc-capable Ammo: 25
Narc Pods: 2
Narc Pods: 6
LB 10-X Cluster Ammo: 9
LB 10-X AC Ammo: 7

Is this going to be any good?

Is there a single point of CT internal structure left? I can't parse megamek's shitty output. If there isn't, no it isn't salvageable.

>Is something by CGL going to be any good?
user, you know the answer to this: absolutely not.

Damn text...
This should help.

...

Yes it 's salvageable, you're just gonna have to work at it. And at not putting red text on black backgrounds.

Because RISC are from clicktech cards that are named that for being a risky piece of equipment. In practice, the Hyper Laser is pretty good in pickup.

I've killed multiple Hellstars with that 4/6/6 one in the same match and it never blew once. It's only got about an 8% chance of exploding and most smaller games wrap up by round 12 anyhow.

Compared to crippled bullshit like regular heavy lasers, it's more than competitive.

Thanks. Sorry for the colors.

One of my players just got workable salvage then. She lost an important pilot a few missions ago and got depressed, and now she has three mechs ready for the fight and three works in progress. She just finished a campaign and that Orion was the big bad. It was a tough fight and I'm glad she has a little something extra to start the third campaign with.

I actually really like TTS when they get the right balance of interesting and obscure. Like there's no point in famous stuff we have a lot of info on already like Butte Hold, but nobody wants to read some stupid dead world that's not even on the maps either.

Did somebody say RISC HL refits?

The rest of my hyperlaser experiments.

Damn shame vehicles can't have DHS. Imagine one of these on a vtolololol.

It's a Touring the Stars book, user. Of course it's going to be shit, since they keep focusing on planets at the ass end of nowhere that don't feature in the plot while what people actually want are setting books for major worlds where people can set a campaign.

You could put one on a super-heavy or support vee VTOL. Not sure if they have SH VTOLs but Support Vees can be built with a fusion engine and 14 HS easily enough.

The reason why FRR has such bad view on mercs is the Ronin War and their goverment hiring mercenaries during that time, the contracts where full of loopholes that mercenary companies abused the fuck out and didn't help out the Kungsarmee to fight off the rogue Dracs that where running amok. After that FRR goverment went to the other extreme in their contracts and that is where the whole reservation thing comes from. The whole reservation thing is just big middle finger to all mercenaries in their part.

The contracts didn't actually have loopholes though. The real problem was that the FRR expected mercs to go above and beyond the terms of their contracts a lot, and in the Ronin War they didn't have much of a military so mercs needed to do a lot of fighting but were frequently refusing on the grounds that they didn't have to- their contracts would say they needed tofight up intol day X and the FRR wanted them to fight on day X+1, one planet in a system they were contracted to garrison was fine and they wanted them to defend another, etc.

Reservations are only partially a fuck you to mercs from the government. The citizens also *really* hate mercs, so keeping them apart is in everyone's best interests.

>One could argue that the blockade could be run by smugglers, but since Jump signatures are so blatant, that's hard to justify.

Just... don't jump in at the same spot as the battleships and have batteries ready so that you can jump out again??

It's still space, so getting anywhere will take the blockading forces a while.

The reason most ships jump in at the Zenith and Nadir points is because those are the safest points to actually jump in system. Anywhere else and you're risking damage to the sail or the hull from micrometeoroids and other space debris. Pirate Points are mostly just well mapped (or at least mapped somewhat) points where that's somewhat less likely to happen. If you jump in at a pirate point and your jumpship gets bowled over by a passing chunk of asteroid while you're running the blockade, you're fucked.

They're also required to be points where gravity from the sun is zeroed out by planets.

>Pirate Points are mostly just well mapped (or at least mapped somewhat) points where that's somewhat less likely to happen.
Not entirely true, or at least not complete.

Pirate points in general are non-standard jump points, yes, but a lot of them are either moving - like a lagrange point between a planet and its moon - or exist only temporarily, when planets line up. In both cases, it's an equilibrium between gravity wells, and it's extremely unlikely than any debris was just hanging there without getting pulled into one well or the other and hence disappearing as a threat. Whatever is hanging there is most likely man-made.

If you have mapped a system down to the small asteroids, you can predict pirate points for years to come with great accuracy - like the Caps did with Tikonov in the FCCW and the Dracs with Wolcott after Tukayyid.

The Clans heavily blockaded Wolcott, and still there were jumpships and droppers going in and out, simply because the Clans could either not predict or cover enough pirate points.

My store started selling those rugs with the roads and buildings and stuff. Would this make a good map?

>Essentially if FASA had been smart they would have made all the black water stuff a separate game not even in the same universe as BattleTech to keep these people from ever developing their hateboners for non-'Mech stuff in the first place.
They did that.
Twice.
Look up Rogue Legion (first incarnation of what would become Crimson Skies) and the Star Trek Fleet Combat Simulator. Hell, FASA got their start as a space-combat company, and incessant player demand is what brought ships into the BT 'verse in the first place.

>Rogue Legion
RENEGADE Legion, you TOG trash! And I keep hearing a persistent rumour that it started out as a game-version of Star Wars, only Lucasfilms decided give the contract to WEG instead.

The Cappies and Dracs are intentionally split up into pieces St Ives style with their puppet rulers going to war with each other to prove their legitimacy. FWL breaks up when when Hanse/Victor offers any of the minor statelets who join him a full seat on the council. This forces Victor to break the marches up to dilute their votes, his siblings get the various new states that don't have ruling families. This reduces the relative power of the first lord considerably but with the advantage of making the council more diverse and representative as well as making any one state far too weak to pull an Amaris.

>The Clans heavily blockaded Wolcott

Was it ever clarified whether the "no attacks again" deal Ho-K extracted from Dietr Osis involved the orbit of Wolcott? Because the dick move to do would have been to park the blockading Clan naval force in orbit and make every incoming dropship run the gauntlet that way.

They weren't allowed to try and capture the world again, but they were allowed to blockade the system and try to kill anyone who attempted to make planetfall.

Which they did.

Wolcott was supposedly used as a logistical base for the Dracs because why bother using an unmonitored, uninhabited system when you can instead get yourself killed trying to go to or from a warehouse?