2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Template:Battletech Factions

2022-08-16T17:59:37Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040:

<center>
{|style="border:2px solid black;padding:0.5em;"
|-
! colspan=2 | [[Battletech]] Factions
|-
| align=right | '''Successor States''': || [[Capellan Confederation]] • [[Draconis Combine]] • [[Federated Suns]] • [[Free Worlds League]] • [[Lyran Commonwealth]]
|-
| align=right | '''Inner Sphere''': || [[Free Rasalhague Republic]] • [[ComStar]] • [[Solaris VII]]
|-
| align=right | '''[[The Periphery|Periphery]] and [[Deep Periphery|Beyond]]''': || [[Magistracy of Canopus]] • [[Taurian Concordat]] • [[Outworlds Alliance]] • [[The Clans]] ([[Clan Wolf]] •[[Clan Jade Falcon]] • [[Clan Diamond Shark]] • [[Clan Smoke Jaguar]] )
|-
| align=right | '''Historic''': || [[Star League]] • [[Word of Blake]] • [[Clan Wolverine]] • [[Republic of the Sphere]] ||
|}
</center>

Clan Smoke Jaguar

2022-08-16T17:51:20Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: /* Notable Mechs */

'''Clan Smoke Jaguar''' is a [[The Clans|Clan]] in the Battletech universe, notable for being a bunch of assholes.
== History ==
Clan Smoke Jaguar was created in 2807 and fell under the command of Franklin Osis, a man of [[Federated Suns]] background who had been caught up in a Davion/[[Capellan Confederation|Liao]] expat conflict before going to Strana Mechty. This and the death of his Brother had left the guy serious anger management issues. During Operation KLONDIKE they invaded Eden and were brutal in their suppression of the civilian populations. Never the less, he did push his Clan to feats of Martial excellence.

Afterwards, they established the planet Huntress as their Homeworld and sought to make their name through combat whenever possible. Smoke Jaguar Absorbed Clan Mongoose in 2868 after they got into one fight too many. Where other Clans might use diplomacy and trade to get something they wanted, Smoke Jaguar's first option was always to throw down.

An infamous incident happened on the Smoke Jaguar held planet of Londerholm in 2912 when a blight wiped out much of the root crop which made up the bulk of the diet for much of the civilian castes. In response, the Smoke Jaguar Clan Council reserved much of the remaining harvest for warrior consumption and kept up food exports. Famine broke out and when various groups resisted, the Smoke Jaguar Warriors came down hard wiping out a good chunk of their civilians for daring to want food when they were starving. In the aftermath the rights of the civilian castes were largely stripped. Numerous other Clans called out the Smoke Jaguars over this pointless dickery in the Grand Council. Smoke Jaguar Khan Ian Moon replied that this was a strictly internal matter and that intervention would set a precedent which would threaten their autonomy in the future. This was enough to keep the Grand Council from getting involved, but this victory won them no friends to say the least.

In the end, Clan Smoke Jaguar's aggressiveness and inability to form well established alliances with other Clans and their Spheroid subjects made them a target for the Second Star League. Left on their own by the other Clans, their homeworlds were conquered by the Second Star League and the last of their warriors were defeated during the Great Refusal. However, some survivors were able to form a remote colony and remake themselves before the [[Republic of the Sphere]] made a bargain with them to let them settle near Terra in exchange for personal loyalty to the Republic's leader as the Fidelis, a personal special forces group with fanatical training and hatred of the Clans. Once the Third Star League was formed over the Republic's ashes, the IlClan reformed the Clan as reward for aiding them (due to internecine politicking among the Republic's factions, the Fidelis got disillusioned with the Exarch prior to the IlClan forming) and surrender while offering them intelligence on Terra's defenses.

== Culture ==
More than any other Clan, Smoke Jaguar believed firmly in the principle that [[Orks|Might Makes Right]]. The Warriors dominate and the rest obey. At least, in theory, anyway.

In reality, Clan Smoke Jaguar were just unilateral assholes. Assholes from the top all the way to the bottom due to their sheer ferocity and fury, which is instilled early. Those in the Warrior Caste were not just given extremely preferential treatment, but also impossibly high standards for their Warriors, especially their "trueborn" Warriors, to the point that they actively drummed "Freeborn" Warriors straight out of their Toumans and all Warriors in the Clan left were exceptionally paranoid, brutish, and suspicious of themselves and others. Those assholes would then take out their anger issues on pretty much ''any'' civilian caste member for any perceived transgressions; real or imagined. This would then create resentment among their Civilian castes to the point that active inter-caste rebellion has been a major part of Smoke Jaguar's history, which would only create a further deepening spiral between the Warriors and Non-Warrior classes as the years went on.

Smoke Jaguars were not just built on war, their only real propelling force in life ''was'' war. When Smoke Jaguar wasn't in some form of pissing contest, it was usually on it's way towards collapse. Since their civilians were treated like crap all the time, the Smoke Jaguar economy was noticeably weaker than that of the other Clans, and the only way to keep the Clan from actively dissolving on it's own was to keep the war flowing. It shouldn't be terribly surprising then that Smoke Jaguar was not just the catalyst, but the leading force in the '''Crusader''' school of thought in Clan politics, and got the incredible stroke of luck in finding the ComStar exploratory group that would allow them to facilitate the beginning of the Clan Invasion. Had they known just what would happen to them afterwards...well, they probably still would've done it.

Really, the biggest failing of Smoke Jaguar's entire culture was not only that they believed the Clan way of life to be the superior way of doing things, but that Smoke Jaguar's particular brand of jackassery alone held the key to Clanner success. While not a unique position among the Clans to think one's own clan was the best, Smoke Jaguar took it a step further by alienating even other Crusader clans due to their pathological need to prove their warriors were the best, and only ever had alliances of convenience in the best of times and held deep generational grudges across multiple clans at worst, which ultimately led to their complete annihilation because they had ultimately painted a target on their backs from the [[Clan Invasion]], and relatively little skill in politiking their way out of the Trial of Refusal.

While they were hidden away as the Fidelis, their surviving warriors (who had been taken bondsmen while their Clan had been annihilated) wizened up. Realizing that the Warrior Caste's extreme focus on only martial affairs as well as inability to work with allies smoothly as a weakness, they reformed their society to have their warriors have extensive cross training across multiple technical and military disciplines while making the caste system more flexible to enable personal freedoms to excel. Whether this development as their time as the Fidelis remains when they reverted back to becoming a Clan under Clan Wolf's Third Star League remains unclear.

=== Notable Mechs ===
* '''''Ebon Jaguar (Cauldron-Born)''''' - The Clan at one point needed a hard upgrade on their aging ''Hellbringer'' Omnimechs, and their scientists drummed up this monstrosity of an OmniMech: it ended up being tough as two-dollar steak and twice as deadly. The Inner Sphere name of "Cauldron-Born" was a direct reference to the nearly impossible to kill irish zombies of yore. Believe it or not, they're actually more known as ''Cauldron-Born'' rather than ''Ebon Jaguars'' because of their secretive development; the other Clans only learned about it's existence after it's first battles, and have been proliferating that name more than it's intended one. The ''Ebon Jaguar'' is a long-range punisher in it's base configuration, with every further config being just more and more unpleasant with each passing moment.
* '''''[[Warhawk|Warhawk (Masakari)]]''''' - The evil twin brother of the ''Timber Wolf'', the Warhawk was well-known for cleaving through the Draconis Combine during the Clan Invasion faster than the axe it was known for. It's gutpunch of being able to volley fire four PPCs without immediately melting down made it such a powerful 'Mech that Smoke Jaguar was very loathe to part with any of them. In a bizarre twist for OmniMechs, it's base configuration was actually the most specialized; most of the other configs are generalist patterns that trade out the PPCs for something else.
* '''''Iron Cheetah''''' - While not actually a "Totem Mech" as the Clans would come to call them, the ''Iron Cheetah'' is instead a testament to both the ferociousness of Smoke Jaguar society and also a great example of why they absolutely couldn't be trusted with anything more complicated than warfare. the ''Iron Cheetah'' is Smoke Jaguar's last gasp of relevance before their annihilation during the Wars of Refusal. Their intent was to create a faster version of the massive but plodding ''Dire Wolf'', that would be able to lead assaults while also acting as a suitable transport for Elementals. They succeeded, creating a brutal 100 ton sniper mech with the speed of an Inner Sphere heavy mech and no slouch on armor. Aesthetically, the mech is a ''Dire Wolf'' with a head more like the ''Timber Wolf'''s. Fortunately for the rest of the galaxy, only a small number of these expensive behemoths were produced before the Clan's fall.

{{Battletech Factions}}
[[Category:BattleTech]]

Clan Jade Falcon

2022-08-16T17:50:25Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: /* Notable Mechs */

'''''Clan Jade Falcon''''' is a [[The Clans|Clan]] in [[Battletech]]
== History ==
Clan Jade Falcon was created in 2807 and was put under the command of one Elizabeth Hazen. Giving her a Clan was something of a no-brainer as she'd served in the Royal Black Watch Regiment (House Cameron's elite personal guard), spent fourteen years fighting Ameris on Terra and had served Alexander Kerensky unwaveringly until his death trying to maintain order through Exodus and the Exodus Civil War. She had the skills, track record, loyalty and respect of the SLDF, as well as being a major Hard-Ass who was 110% done dealing with bullshit from those who could not just play nice. During Operation KLONDIKE, the Jade Falcons invaded the planet Eden.

In the aftermath of the Exodus Civil War, some of her followers were upset that Nicholas Kerensky decided to make Clan Wolf his Clan instead of Jade Falcon and were causing trouble. Hazen's responds was direct, execute all the officers involved and reassigned the survivors to remote outposts around the Kerensky cluster.

Clan Jade Falcon was one of the four clans who invaded the inner sphere in [[Clan Invasion|Operation Revival]], attacking the Lyran Commonwealth.
== Culture ==
Clan Jade Falcon could be said to be the most Clanlike Clan to ever Clan. They are traditionalists and try to stick as closely to Nicky's vision as they can. They are militarized, honor obsessed and when presented with a issue tend to respond with "what would The Founder say about this?". Warriors are preeminent, especially Trueborn Warriors (Freeborns wear silver Rank Insignia while Trueborn wear gold) and there is little tolerance for dissent. That said, unlike [[Clan Smoke Jaguar|some assholes]] the Jade Falcons know that a strong set of Civilian Castes is good for the Clan as a whole. Standards of living on Jade Falcon worlds are higher than normal and in particular the Merchant Caste of Jade Falcon has produced some fearsome bankers.

Even so, they have adapted somewhat since relocating to the Inner Sphere. Facing down foes who not only refuse to play by the official Clan handbook of honorable conduct but treat it with mocking contempt and ruling over billions of non-Clanners sort of requires it.

Clan Jade Falcon was one of the Pillars of the Crusader Faction. It also has a longstanding rivalry with Clan Wolf.
== Military ==
The Jade Falcon's adhere to the teachings of Nicolas in warfare. With the mind set of how a war is won is just as important as simply winning it. As they always adhere to the rules of zellbrigen at all times (unless their commander says they can break it). During their invasion run, they still do this against Inner Sphere foes who tend to exploit this, but after the Battle of Tukayyid, they pretty much ditch this habit against non-Clan foes. They do practice in combined-arms warfare preferably with Omnimechs as the centerpiece of their armies with Omnifighters and Elementals supporting them on the flanks.

==== Notable Mechs ====
* '''''[[Summoner (BattleTech)|Summoner]]''''' - Inner Sphere name "Thor". The mech is the Clans most favored mech which they developed after gaining Omnimech technology. It can tear up armor from long range with its Clan ER PPC, and LRM-15. At medium range it would finish its target off with its LB 10-X Autocannon. It was named the Thor by Victor Steiner-Davion as its weapons makes the flashes and noises of thunder and lightning.
* '''''Hellbringer''''' - Inner Sphere name "Loki". The Summoners cousin which trades off armor for more weapons. It possess weapons that allow it to take on any enemy at all ranges. Its main weapons are a pair of Clan ER PPC's for arms. Its torso is crammed with three ER Medium Lasers, double Machine Guns, and Streak SRM-6 and an Anti-missile System on its shoulders. It got called the Loki due to the maddening weapons loadout it had on its first sighting.

{{Stub}}
{{Battletech Factions}}
[[Category: BattleTech]]

The Clans

2022-08-16T17:27:06Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: /* Mechs */

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name=
|image= [[Image:Clan Logo.png|250px|center]]
}}
{{Topquote|We will purge our old ideals and ethics; those belong to the corrupt stars of the Inner Sphere, and will not serve as we begin anew. Now, while our minds are open and yearning for new insight, we must re-mold them, and fill them with the truth of our destiny. For we are destined not only to be different from those we left behind, but also better. My father knew this, and saved us from the holocaust of the Inner Sphere. I accept it as truth, and have returned to lead you, the survivors of this most bitter trial.|Nicholas Kerensky}}

{{Topquote|Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the Capellan, 'it belongs to the poor.' 'No! says the ComGuard, 'it belongs to humanity.' 'No!' says the Kuritan Coordinator, 'it belongs to me!' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... the Clan. A culture where the warrior would not suffer the bureaucrat. Where the scientist would not be bound by the autocrat. Where the able would not be ruled by the incompetant. And by the sweat of your brow, the Clan can become your Clan as well.|Nicholas Kerensky}}

'''The Clans''' are a civilization in the [[Battletech]] Universe. Descended from a remnant of the [[Star League]] Defense Force which fled from the Inner Sphere when the shit hit the fan and spend the next two and a half centuries developing on their own course before [[Clan Invasion|returning back in 3049]] from the [[Deep Periphery]].

From an IRL perspective in a very human focused setting without intelligent extraterrestrials, the Clans were designed to be very alien without actually being Aliens. They're not based on any one historic civilization and have a more Science-Fictiony way of operating.
== History ==
In 2766 a guy named Stefan Amaris (ruler of the Rim World's Republic) launched a coup d'état while the majority of the SLDF was out fighting rebellions in the periphery, killing the young First Lord (along with the rest of the Cameron bloodline) and seizing control of the Terran Hegemony. This started a fourteen year long civil war called the [[Amaris Civil War]] in which the SLDF under the command of Aleksandr Kerensky dismantled his support base and moved to liberate the Terran Hegemony in spite of being cut off from resupply and limited support by the Five Great Houses. But while he did succeed in toppling Amaris' Asshole Regime, the Star League did not survive the fall of House Cameron and fell apart shortly afterwards. In spite of internecine infighting within the Great Houses, all agreed to strip Aleksandr Kerensky of his authority while secretly seeking to subvert the SLDF's individual regiments as recruits for their planned wars to claim the Star League's throne. War was on the horizon between the Great Houses but Kerensky was unwilling to seize power for himself or see his remaining army and fleet used in the looming conflict. As such he got the SLDF leadership together in secret and proposed something to save the Inner Sphere and themselves: leave the Inner Sphere and start up somewhere new. Most agreed and in 2785 a fleet loaded with some six million SLDF troops, their families (including Aleksandr's wife Katyusha and two sons Andery and Nicholas) and some folks with valuable skills left the inner sphere for greener pastures.

After a two year long voyage through the unknown, with crowded ships pushed beyond their intended limits and taking care to cover their tracks, losses due to accident and an attempted mutiny they found some uninhabited planets beyond the Periphery known as the Pentagon Worlds. They set up shop, discharged most of their soldiers and began rebuilding their lives and establishing a bastion of the Star League in Exile. For about 15 years, it seemed to work. Ex-SLDF soldiers built homes, farms and towns, started families and businesses and many of them found a measure of peace after a life of carnage. Unfortunately some of the demobilized guys decided that they'd be better off forming their own petty kingdoms (many of which were based on old Inner Sphere loyalties) and soon enough there was a big and brutal shit fight in 2800. The closest equivalent to the [[Succession Wars]] in Clan space before the [[Wars of Reaving]], they’d became known as the Pentagon Civil Wars. Aleksandr (already more than 100 years old) died heartbroken, leaving everything in utter disarray.

In this chaos, his son Nicholas managed to get the support of some loyal troops and most of the SLDF Fleet and made his way to another world nearby called Strana Mechty ("Land of the Dream" in Russian) along with about a million pentagon refugees brought in not long after. Convinced that the current order of things and the Star League ways of thinking were fundamentally broken he decided to not only establish a new colony, but also build a new society from the ground up, dividing his warriors into twenty Clans, and soon assigning civilians to each Clan. To nip a second exodus civil war in the bud, each Clan was made from a mix of people from all over the Inner Sphere. Cities were founded, factories built, ammunition was stockpiled, ships were readied and the warriors were drilled constantly. In 2820 the newly formed Clans returned to the Pentagon Worlds during Operation KLONDIKE, reconquering them over the span of two years. But beyond simply restoring order, Nicholas imposed the new (and still forming) culture onto their population. Given that the name Kerensky skill carried a lot of weight, the end to the chaos of civil war, the fact that the system basically worked and Clan Warriors having all the guns the bulk of the remaining population went along with this. Those that did not were one way or another silenced.

After Nicolas's death, the system chugged along quite well with the occasional hiccup in what was known as the Golden Century. What had been a few million war-ravaged refugees soon grew int a thriving civilization, if one which operated quite differently from that of the inner sphere. The population rapidly expanding and new worlds being colonized. The social structure solidified, technological breakthroughs were made and the individual Clans evolved along their own paths. In contrast, the Inner Sphere was busy self destructing due to blood feuds and the machinations of Space AT&T.

Eventually in the 2900s there was a split between two factions of The Clans: the Wardens (who felt the Clans should keep to themselves and only get involved in the Inner Sphere if it was threatened by someone else) and the Crusaders (who saw it as their duty to conquer the Inner Sphere and restore a new Clan based Star League). Honestly, if they allowed caste mobility and injected some capitalism and used government-enforced stamps for extra luxury items as the carrot, a Clan conquest likely would have gone over pretty well all around. Unfortunately they're master race asshats who effectively enslave everyone who isn't a warrior ''(as opposed to the Inner Sphere, where you're a slave because you aren't rich or have the wrong last name)''.

== Society ==
{{topquote|Return to the Inner Sphere is impossible for us. Our heritage and our convictions are different from those we left behind. The greed of the five Great Houses and the Council Lords is a disease that can only be burned away by the passing of decades, even centuries. And though the fighting may seem to slow, or even cease, it will erupt again as long as there are powerful men to covet one another's wealth. We shall live apart, conserving all the good of the Star League and ridding ourselves of the bad, so that when we return — and return we shall — our shining moral character will be as much our shield as our BattleMechs and fighters.|Aleksandr Kerensky, General Order 137, December 5th, 2785. These words would be the Nucleus of the Hidden Hope Doctrine}}

An important fact about the Clans is that they were born from repeat societal trauma. The Amaris Coup and Civil War, the Death of Star League, the Exodus, the Pentagon Civil War and the Second Exodus; these were harrowing events to live through, but also were seen as total failure of the old order of things even if it had aspired to noble ideals and achieved greatness. As such, Nicholas Kerensky and his followers were convinced that for humanity to survive society needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. Nicky did work from his specific interpretation of his father's words and borrowed elements from a lot of different historic cultures, but the aim was to start clean.

[[File:Clan Spaniel.jpg|thumb|left|The Clans have produced fearsome genetically enhanced warriors, revolutionary BattleMechs and some darn fine cartoons (yes this is totally canon)]]
Even though there is a Grand Council for settling disputes and acting as a whole, each Clan operates mostly independently of its fellows. "Peace" is not really a thing in Clan Society, but war is seldom total. When the Clans are not out conquering others, they're fighting low intensity highly ritualized wars with each other. Yet, what made the Clan Homeworlds spared the Succession Wars level of violence that sent the Inner Sphere back to the stone age was the application of Zellbrigan and the Honor Road, which emphasized individual unit and warrior prowess while minimizing collateral damage. This includes codes for honorable surrender. On the downside, while material and technological matters were better preserved (if not improved upon with OmniMechs, Battle Armor, and rapid limb replacement with cloned ones or myomer prosthesis), individual human lives weren’t seen as inherently valuable so concepts such as safety gear and personal healthcare were seen as things only worth providing to those who had more worthwhile skills. So while your typical Scientist, Merchant, and Technician castes has average lifespans, most Laborers and Warriors wound up dead in their 40-50’s due to combat or physical burn-out leaving them as “dead weight” if they can’t do anything useful. It’s bad enough that most elderly Warriors would rather die as disposable infantry sent in the first wave of an assault instead of starving in bed while infirm.

Clan Society is militaristic, authoritarian, honor bound and strictly hierarchical. It's mostly built around a rigid caste system in which one's role in society is typically assigned in childhood and social mobility is a rarity. The Economies of each of the Clans is largely centrally planned and mostly concerned with producing more mechs, ships, weapons and warriors and more clanners to make and support more of those. Humans are mass produced as much as Mechs are in Clan Society1. Motivated by the Clan Home-worlds being harsher and less abundant in resources, wastefulness is discouraged while recycling is the norm to the point that harvesting organs and tissue from the deceased is expected before the cremated ashes are used for crop nutrition. Meanwhile nonproductive activities such as entertainment or leisure were normally seen as incentives to get people working or in extreme cases outright banned. Hence, while stuff like competitive combat sports and athletics are encouraged, things like literature and theatre are treated as frivolous trivialities at best. Most observers note that outside of agriculture, healthcare (for combat injuries), STEM topics, heavy manufacturing, and military-industrial complexes, most non-military related tech and practices were literally frozen in the Star League era. Overall, "Everything for the Clan", "The Clan Provides" and "The Clan Knows Best" are the overarching attitudes.

One of the quirks of Clan Society is that most people only have a given name. More on that in a bit.

The Castes are as such...

* Warrior Caste: The rulers of Clan society trained the Spartan Way. Most of them are grown in bulk in industrial exowomb factories and raised in sibling companies (sibkos), but a few applicants from the general populace are let in. Many flunk out one way or another and become part of the civilian castes while many others end up dying in brutal training regimens and trials for combat. Those that become Warriors are typically hard as nails and brutal fighters. By far the smallest caste. Those who are nearing retirement age (typically 30-50’s in their hyper competitive society) or forced to retest if they failed graduation in a live fire exercise are usually placed in lackluster duties like police, intelligence services, non-power armored infantry, and armored vehicle formations. They're three main flavors of Clan Warriors...
**[[Clan Elemental|Elementals]]: Battletech's answer to Space Marines, huge guys and gals who wear power armor and act as shock troops.
**Pilots: Small fellows with big eyes and heads who can take a lot of Gs like the T'au's Air Caste.
**Mech Warriors: The most regular warriors, but optimized with improved reflexes and increased neuro-helmet compatibility.
* Scientist Caste: Scientists, inventors, researchers and the like who expand on the Clan's knowledge base and run the eugenics programs. As the Clans have advanced technologically where the inner sphere has regressed, they've been largely successful. The second most powerful caste in Clan society who can actually overrule the warriors on certain matters such as eugenics or technology.
* Technician Caste: Mechanics, engineers, and spacecraft crews who keep the machinery of Clan Society humming along. They work with the Warrior Caste directly more than most which gives them some clout.
* Merchant Caste: Traders as well as managers, artists and a wide variety of other functions required to run the economy of Clan Society. They have a higher status in Clan Diamond Shark, since Diamond Shark Warriors can honorably retire to this caste with reservist status if the Clan requires more manpower.
* Laborer Caste: The proles who do all the grunt work to keep everyone else fed, housed, equipped, armed, pooping in unclogged toilets and so forth. The largest caste, no less due to Battletech's universe using neo-feudalism.
* Dark Caste: Not an official caste but a bunch of outcasts which live on the edges of Clan society in hiding. Makes for convenient target practice for clan warriors. They either survive as pirates, smugglers, or organized criminal syndicates that try to disguise themselves as guilds (which isn't hard as the Free Guilds do exist independently of each clan but are publicly regulated).

In addition each caste has it's own internal hierarchy where merit and competition determines your pecking order. For example the Merchant Caste has retail clerks at the bottom and top negotiators for big inter-clan deals at the top. And while each caste committee is technically subordinate to the Warrior exclusive Clan Council, the council mostly let the civilian castes do what they deem best unless it deals with the Clan’s existential matters or martial affairs. In terms of warriors, the inter-Clan’s competition is not only reflected in rising up the ranks from sib-cadet to Khan but a Desire to win a Bloodname through gaining honorable victory for their clan. Having a BloodName means they get a surname and their genes will be be guaranteed for use to produce the next batch of Warriors while they can participate in Clan Council. Conversely, any disgrace a warrior commits risks anything from demotion at best to outright eliminating their entire Bloodname’s BloodHouse from the Clan’s records and genetic repository. Really accomplished scientists can be awarded a Labname like "Einstein" or "Darwin", but non-Scientists rarely use them.

Two other known divides between members within Clan society depends on their type of birth and their national origin. With the Clan scientist caste’s access to Iron Wombs and eugenic genecraft, Clansmen are classified as either Trueborn or Freeborn. The former are literal designer babies who are grown in an artificial amniotic womb while the latter are naturally born. Due to the Clans’ focus on breeding the best of their warriors for beneficial traits as quickly as possible, Trueborn are generally deemed superior. On the other hand, whether it's due to their superior training regimes or genes is up for debate. Likewise, there's a distinction between those born within a Clan and those who were absorbed as bondsmen captured from other Clans or factions. Their outcome depends on each Clan's attitude and the captured person's origins. Ideally, transplanted outsiders are either treated the same as native clansmen and promoted based on their merit, loyalty, and adaptability to Clan culture. Conversely, captured outsiders could also be subjugated to de-facto second class citizenship from either prejudice against enemies or the natives’ superiority complex.

A big part of Clan Society, especially in the Warrior Caste, is tradition and ritual. On the whole they have a rather "meh" view of religion (partly due to their utilitarian mindset and a big portion of their population being designer babies), but it's role is largely filled by the Hidden Hope Doctrine and a cult of personality mixed with hero worship of the Clan’s original leaders. Aleksandr and Nicholas Kerensky are all but worshiped as "the Founders". Warriors must past through a variety of trials to achieve position and within the Clan's hierarchy. The Clans preserve and teach their history through ''The Remembrance'', a long epic poem that summarizes each Clan’s glory. Bloodnames are part of that. In general they try to cultivate an air of mystery and impart subtle meanings into the various rituals. All of which are conceived to reinforce the ideals of The Clans and Clan identity into future generations on an emotional level. On the same note, Clanners tend to be very conformist with little tolerance for un-Clanlike Behavior at the best of times.

In particular in their mythologized view of history Star League was a bountiful paradise despoiled by the greed and spite by wicked petty power hungry leaders, especially the five Great House (in of itself this is not a bad interpretation of events). As such they view the people of the Inner Sphere having fallen into Barbarism. This is notable because it gives them a standard to define themselves against as well as prejudices their outlooks against others.

Another side effect to Clan culture’s emphasis on conformity and blunt honesty is that they tend to suffer against piracy operations and guerrilla warfare when they invade non-Clanner territories. In contrast to civilians and other Clans accepting new rulers in Clan Space as a fact of life, the Inner Sphere had no compunction against nationalist resistance movements. Hence why the Dark Caste and pirates thrive in the Clan Occupation Zones. While civilian and certain Clan politics are just as two-faced as anyone else, outright breaking agreements without justification or blatant lies unless it’s half-truths and subtle deception is unheard of. Hence, the Clans suffered in intelligence operations before the Blakist Jihad. While later clans were able to adjust in the Inner Sphere with commando raids, headhunting operations, open intelligence gathering, and sleeper agents, outright assassination and espionage were still prohibited as anathema against honorable combat. Otherwise, they just suspend Zellbrigan application to war if they deem their foes dishonorable to permit total war.

1Both by Exowombs and more conventional means. Clan Civilian Society is pronatalist, encouraging large families with various incentives, extensive childcare services and similar to keep up a steady supply of babies. On a similar note, Clanners are as a rule rather casual about sex as long as contraception is employed for casual hook-ups. This is especially the case for Warriors, who think of sex as a fun thing to do with your friends if they're up for it.

== Individual Clans ==
There are originally twenty clans formed by Nicholas Kerensky but over the course of the centuries, many were destroyed or absorbed into other factions.

[[Category: BattleTech]]
* '''[[Clan Wolf]]''': The first "Mary Sue" Clan, having the ilKhan along their ranks kinda marks you for that. Also known for fielding the Timber Wolf which plenty call a poster boy for the series. They actually won their objectives in the battle of Tukayyid. As of a recent novel, they're now ilClan with Jade Falcon as their bodyguard and Smoke Jaguar reconstituted as their special forces. The Wolves' superpower is that they tend to show up with an actual strategy for both winning the war and winning the peace that comes after the war, a rare thing in the highly dogmatic and Trial-obsessive Clan culture.
* '''[[Clan Jade Falcon]]''': The other "Mary Sue" Clan. Also the Purist Clan, since they are staunch traditionalists which stick with Nicky's vision as tightly as they can. When you think of honor-crazed warrior cultures that went full murder-hobo, you're thinking Jade Falcon. Were the asshats that invaded '''MY HOME PLANET''' in the animated series. They earned themselves a draw on Tukayyid at about the last minute.
* '''[[Clan Smoke Jaguar]]''': The Asshole Clan. Aggressive militarists who value only strength and treat their civilian castes like crap. They make Jade Falcon look nice as the green birb gets that rewarding loyal productivity gets you more of it. They earned getting smoked on Tukayyid, bidding away a vast majority of their forces to get the first deployment and only to have them repeatedly baited into ambush after ambush on Tukayyid by being the most aggressive Clan during the invasion, and ultimately demolished in the Second Star League's counterattack during the Trial of Refusal.
* '''[[Clan Diamond Shark|Clan Diamond Shark/Sea Fox]]''': The Money Clan. Once Clan Sea Fox until they saw a Diamond Shark devour a Sea Fox whole. Fitting that their fighting strength was almost wiped out in Tukayyid due to their inexperience in fighting a actual war as opposed to the dance and diddy that the Clans call a war. Currently going by Clan Sea Fox again, mostly run by merchants after their warrior caste was basically butchered to the last.
* '''Clan Ghost Bear''': The Practical Clan. Moderate fence sitters that actually attempt to do their homework on their foe? My God, it is like they have a brain... At any rate, Ghost Bear are unusual for the Clans in that they actually practice something akin to normal family structures, and were slow to adapt new tactics but moved in a steady pace for effect. The other Clan that got a draw on Tukayyid. They eventually shacked up with the [[Free Rasalhague Republic|Rasalhagues]] to make their own hybrid state.
* '''Clan Nova Cat''': The Mystic Clan. Brought in to help Clan Smoke Jaguar, they ended up joining the Inner Sphere instead. However, they got the shit beaten out of them first by the Ghost Bears and then by their Inner Sphere hosts once they backed the wrong faction in a Kuritan Civil War; killing them off. All that remains are their Spirit Cat descendants in the Free Worlds League and unaccounted refugees.
*'''Clan Steel Viper''': The smug clan. This clan had a rough start since their first Khan was a yandere (for real). They mostly isolated themselves and focused on making super-elite soldiers while dreaming about how they'd rule the Inner Sphere. This got them a spot as back-up for the Jade Falcons, but having super-elite infantry is not a replacement for actually good mechs, and they got kicked out of the Inner Sphere by the Falcons, started the [[Wars of Reaving]], and ultimately got murk'd.
* '''Clan Cloud Cobra''': The Religious Clan. Everything they do is in service to what they call "The Way", a sort of pseudo-religion that generally prefers them to keep their nose out of trouble and honor the sanctity of life. Normally this would mean they were prime real estate to get eaten alive by the others, but The Way does call for war when struck, and many a clan has realized far too late that Cloud Cobra isn't just a bunch of peaceniks, they're sharp as a tack and exceptionally politically devious. Currently the second largest power in the Clan Homeworlds Post-reaving, probably tending their gardens and reading psalms to each other when they aren't crank calling Clan Coyote.
* '''Clan Star Adder''': The Pragmatic Clan. Star Adder had no time for the pseudo-religious trappings of any Kerensky worship, simply seeing Alex and his kid as noteworthy generals in their own right. This lack of interest in the ritualism and especially the politics of the Clans lead to a very close relationship between all caste members equally, and attracting little notice in inter-clan relationships. Eventually ended up the biggest clan among the Homeworlds once Steel Viper had accidentally made it super easy to get rid of them, and are for the most part buddies with Cloud Cobra and Stone Lion, while tolerating Clan Coyote's presence.
* '''Clan Coyote''': The Survivor Clan. Initially did fantastically for themselves as a noble practitioner group of Zellbringen as well as best buddies with Clan Wolf, as well as being the clan directly responsible for the development of OmniMech technology and their Khan was briefly IlKhan for a bit before a Snow Raven plot killed her. Since that point, they've largely been shunned, if not sent away from Clan Space after the Wars of Reaving, but still survive to this day, though far more ruthless in their aims.
* '''Clan Snow Raven''': The Sneaky Clan. Due to a series of major military disasters early on in their history, this clan has spent most of it's time playing realpolitik against itself and the rest of the Clans, preferring to stay out of open confrontation due to their lackluster forces. Have a lot of naval prowess due to their occasional need to hit the stellar bricks. Eventually shacked up with the [[Outworlds Alliance]] government to become the Raven Alliance.
* '''Clan Goliath Scorpion:''' The Stoner Clan with a twist of Indiana Jones treasure hunting. Have a deep preference for extremely precise strikes as opposed to brute forcing their way through things, while also requiring getting absolutely blasted on refined scorpion venom. Deep Warden feelings and an obsession with the past meant they basically kept themselves out of most clanner bullshit unless pressed. They also had a habit of trying to secure bloodlines or artifacts linked the the Star League and actually think they can find them with visions induced by said cocktail of narcotic scorpion venom. Eventually got into trouble for illegally adding bloodlines to their eugenics program from the [[Mercenaries (Battletech)|SLDF descended Eridani Light Horse]] and just fucked off to the [[Deep Periphery]] to go fight the conquer the Castilian Cluster and the Hanseatic League to start their own empire.
* '''Clan Hell's Horses:''' The Biker Clan, for as much as one can be a Biker in Battletech. Known primarily for their use of combat vehicles <s>rather than</s> alongside Mechs. Hells Horses has the distinction of being an extremely stable Clan, if not the most powerful, due to their personal belief that all within it, including the Freeborn, serve the [[greater good]] of the Clan. Eventually fucked off to the Inner Sphere, with a hardliner contingent remaining behind and becoming a different clan altogether known as Clan Stone Lion.
* '''Clan Fire Mandrill''': The Horde Clan. Set up almost the exact opposite way as Hell's Horses, as it is organized in to dozens of mini-Clans called ''Kindraa'', who often fought amongst themselves just as much as they fought other Clans. Unsurprisingly, they got completely wrecked by the Wars of Reaving.
* '''Clan Mongoose''': The Bitey Clan. Notably for fighting everyone they could all the time for any petty reason. Their antics made them a lot of enemies and eventually they got Shitstomped and Absorbed in 2868. Unfortunately they got mopped up by Smoke Jaguar.
* '''[[Clan Wolverine]]''': The Not-Named Clan whom all the other Clans hate with a burning passion. Betrayed by the original founders of the Clans for being better at the Clan thing than Kerensky was. Survivors wondering who-knows-where, but the main Clan went out as balls-to-the-wall badasses.

== Clan Military ==
Each Clan has it's own military collectively called a Touman. They share some common practices and conventions laid out by Nicholas Kerensky, but within said boundaries each Clan is free to set up their forces more or less as they see fit, and usually each does according to their Clan's ouvre. Of course, what makes the Clans so dangerous regardless of their individual affiliation is their [[OmniMech]]s, which were often lightyears ahead in terms of modular design and technological strength of the Inner Sphere's BattleMechs. On top of that, their tendency of using jump-jet equipped power armored infantry piggybacking off of their OmniMechs enabled them to have swarms of MEQ’s either ripping vehicles or bunkers when BattletMech use would be deemed overkill.

But while they hold a technological edge, where the Clans falter greatly is in tactical strength. Most Clan warfare prior to the invasion was limited to the honor-bound, extremely skirmish-heavy battles fought between each other where both sides showed up, told each other what they'd be fighting with, and often fighting only in significant duels. All this was supplemented with a heavy emphasis on Mech warfare (or whatever hat the individual Clan wears), a massive culture-wide bias against intelligence gathering due to it being "dishonorable", and what the Zellbringen code allows; which meant they often plopped only the bare minimum of assets down to complete their missions as a personal dare to win with as little as possible. While in theory this is done to both minimize casualties and keep valuable resources alive and working for the Clan to use, the simple fact of the matter is Clanner warfare is continually hamstrung by itself; The Inner Sphere Successor States are under absolutely no delusions about war being an honorable thing, and were able to effectively fracture their entire society by daring to be cute with their own ideas of warfare, coming to one of the harshest wake-up calls they ever got in the Battle of Tukayyid, and any gains they took from the Inner Sphere from the initial invasion almost immediately began to crumble as their attitudes towards their new subjects ultimately plopped them into a series of guerilla wars, something utterly alien to them. Some Clans wised up and decided to try and learn something from this, others have yet to understand why things happened the way they did and returned to the Periphery.

The Clans tend to organize themselves depending on their culture, but generally speaking have their own military structure. Unlike the Inner Sphere which uses the traditional "chain of command", "grunt to general" approach, the Clans do not necessarily have an officer system by the traditional method. Every Warrior is considered roughly the same until you get to the Point Commander rank, at which point traditional methods kick back in, but even so the relationship is much less formal. Every part of the Clan Touman is organized into a "Base Five" system, which organizes everything into even groups of five.

The Clan Toumans are (typically) organized into:
* Point: 1 Mech, 2 Tanks, 5 Elementals or 25 Regular Infantry
* Star: 5 Points. Considered the "base" unit of Clan warfare. Most Stars are all of one combat role, as mixed Stars tend to do poorly.
* Binary: 2 Stars. The point at which Combined Arms becomes feasible.
* Trinary: 3 Stars
* Cluster: 3-5 Binaries
* Galaxy: 3-5 Clusters, plus an extra Trinary for Command. Generally a logistical designation because the process of Clan warfare bidding down typically ensures that Galaxies will only ever be deployed rarely.

===== Mechs =====

Due to the fact that they showed up out of nowhere unannounced besides a few Batchalls, Clan Battlemechs have both official names and Inner Sphere code names. The following "original sixteen" are the most common frontline OmniMechs used in the invasion, and found in most Clans' toumans:

* [[Timber Wolf|Timberwolf/Mad Cat]]: The Clanner's most famous mech. Actually quite a preposterously expensive thing, but the fact it can blast it's way through Assault Mechs makes it a favorite. It's Inner Sphere name comes from their targeting computers being incapable of deciding whether or not it's a ''Marauder'' or a ''Catapult'', and so flashed MAD CAT over and over whenever it showed up. Developed (and produced exclusively) by Clan Wolf, though most other Clans acquired them by trade or salvage during the century leading up to the invasion.
* [[Mad Dog|Mad Dog/Vulture]]: The Clan's OTHER most famous mech. Basically the Timberwolf's leaner, scrappy little brother, resembling the Inner Sphere's Archer. Follows the same basic concept of shoulder mounted missiles and arm mounted energy guns, but has a little more pod space in exchange for a lighter chassis and armor. Can hot-swap the LRMs for an absurd number of SRMs, [[What|or its entire loadout for a pair of Gauss Rifles]]. First built by Clan Smoke Jaguar but most popular with the Ghost Bears.
* [[Summoner (BattleTech)|Summoner/Thor]]: The Summoner fills the unusual role of being a heavy mech that sacrifices weaponry for mobility, generally giving up redundancy in its weapons in order to carry jump jets and maintain a flexible loadout with less capacity. The result is a mech that's pretty good at moving in fast and bullying things smaller than itself, but doesn't want to tangle with assault class stuff unless it has weight of numbers; not because it doesn't have the armor (see the Hellbringer and Executioner) but because it doesn't bring [[dakka|enough guns]]. Resembles the Inner Sphere's Thunderbolt. The favorite mech of Clan Jade Falcon.
* Hellbringer/Loki: A glass cannon, carrying a versatile array of weaponry at the cost of having laughably weak armor for a heavy mech. Its primary configuration resembles the Inner Sphere's Warhammer, with twin ER PPCs in the arms mated to a targeting computer, backup lasers and anti-infantry weapons. The other favorite mech of Clan Jade Falcon.

* [[Dire Wolf (BattleTech)|Dire Wolf/Daishi]]: The last word in mech-to-mech encounters. Where the Summoner is happy being a schoolyard bully and the Hellbringer is minmaxxed for DPS, the Dire Wolf is just one huge chungus that simply does not care what the enemy brought. 100 tons, unapologetically slow, with an absurd amount of firepower and armor, this is the ultimate assault mech. Barring a lucky headshot this mech will outlast and crush anything you throw its way; underestimate it at your own peril. This is the mech every Mechwarrior dreams of piloting, and many important figures(Natasha Kerensky, Victor Steiner-Davion, Hohiro Kurita) design their own(even stronger) custom variants. This design was fought over between Clan Wolf and Clan Smoke Jaguar and also produced secretly on Outreach by Wolf's Dragoons.
* Executioner/Gladiator: A strange take on the concept of an Assault Mech. At 95 tons it can mount a lot of equipment, but focuses on mobility through jump jets and MASC. As the downside to this, it has anemic side torso armor, meaning it gets cut in half whenever faced with any real attrition. But as an upside, its speed and good leg armor make it a great Elemental transport, and carrying Elementals can help guard its side torsos... sadly most of its configurations have long range weapons while Elementals need to be brought in close. The stereotypical Ghost Bear omnimech.
* [[Warhawk|Warhawk/Masakari]]: Pure evil, bringing this to a friendly game will turn some heads. Heavily armored, average speed, the classic Warhawk carries [[Rape|FOUR CLAN ER PPCS]] in its arms, mercilessly vaporizing limbs and heads of anyone unfortunate to be caught in its sights. If that isn't enough, every variant carries a massive Targeting Computer, essentially giving the pilot an aimbot. A common variant swaps two ER PPCs for Large Pulse Lasers, allowing it to better manage its heat while firing with even greater accuracy. One of Clan Smoke Jaguar's signature designs.
* Gargoyle/Man o'War: The infamous SpurdoMech is somewhat of an unusual design, an assault mech that moves above its weight class but has (relatively) weak leg armor. Its Prime also has the misfortune of having ballistic weapons yet too many heat sinks, its twin LB5X autocannons forcing it squarely into an anti-vehicle role. Its lack of torso weapons and its speed make it a good Elemental transport and Clan Wolf builds them in large numbers: however overall it is weaker than the lighter Timber Wolf (unless mech quirks are in play). Also somewhat popular with Clan Ghost Bear. (apparently the weird configuration works well under specialized Clan duel rules)

* Stormcrow/Ryoken: The close combat star of the clan mediums, usually packing fists and lasers although sometimes fitted for long range. At 97 km/h it's faster than everything it can't take down. Doesn't get much time in the spotlight compared to its slower, heavier cousin the Mad Dog, but it comes from the same family of flexible second-gen omnimechs. A workhorse design for many Clans but most popular with the Smoke Jaguars.
* Nova/Black Hawk: One of the oldest OmniMech designs still in use, the Nova is uncommon yet universal among the Clans as a medium mech that can (briefly) throw dakka like mechs 20 tons heavier than itself. Infamous for running HOT with TWELVE ER Medium Lasers, the king of alpha strikes. Also has a PPC sniper variant which is quite good, and a couple configurations that try to pack ballistic weapons and missiles despite the fixed heat sinks.
* Ice Ferret/Fenris: A swift yet well armored scout that can do some sniping to boot. Originally built as a harasser to counter the Timber Wolf, Clan Wolf liked it enough to capture a factory and started producing it themselves. Now is a ubiquitous sight in their touman.
* Viper/Dragonfly: A fast jumper, often described (incorrectly) as lacking punch. [[Cheese|Known for being one of the first mechs to combine jumping 8 hexes (extremely hard to be hit) with pulse lasers (extremely easy to hit the enemy).]] A great Elemental transport and infantry killer popular with the Ghost Bears and Wolves.

* [[Adder|Adder/Puma]]: The largest of the Clans' ubiquitous light omnimechs is a bit of an oddity. While not particularly fast for a light mech, it carries a pair of ER PPCs with a targeting computer, making it a true sniper. As an omnimech, it can switch to being a gnarly missile boat in an hour or two. Most often found among Clan Wolf (though the Fenris fits the scout role of a light mech better).
* Kit Fox/Uller: Similar to the Adder in most respects, though lighter armored, the Kit Fox tends to carry a more balanced assortment of weapons in its variants, rather than boating one thing in particular. Except for the EW/anti-infantry variant, which happens to have a whopping three anti-missile systems. Recently canonized as having a dedicated Arrow IV variant(read: a guided, auto-loading cruise missile launcher), meaning it can be equipped with [[Exterminatus|nuclear weapons]]. Unsurprising, given that it is produced by Clan Jade Falcon.
* Mist Lynx/Koshi: A 25 ton dedicated scout omnimech packing more weapons than its Inner Sphere equivalents, but nothing special as far as Clan mechs go. [[Derp|Infamous for having one less jump jet than needed to be truly evasive, putting nearly half its torso armor on its rear facing, while fully armoring the head]]. Used by Clan Smoke Jaguar in the rare OOC instance that they attempt reconnaissance.
* Fire Moth/Dasher: [[Meme|GOTTA GO FAST]]. A derpy little machine with arms that stretch high above its head, and speed that far exceeds anything the Inner Sphere thought a battlemech could be capable of. It still manages to have more guns than Inner Sphere mechs twice its size, too- Clan tech is just that powerful. Surprisingly the light mech of choice for Clan Ghost Bear, which actually makes a lot of sense: the Clan that prefers Elementals and plays American Football loves a mech that runs up and flings the battle armor overhand at the enemy.

== External Links ==
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDR_Zpb05uk Part One of Tex's series on Clan History]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B165wbTnHs Part Two of Tex's series on Clan History]

{{Battletech Factions}}

Federated Suns

2022-08-16T17:23:07Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: /* Notable Mechs */

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name=
|image= [[Image:FedSuns1.png|250px|center]]
|bgcolor= gold
|fgcolor= crimson
|Capital= New Avalon (Currently held by the Draconis Combine)
|Official Languages= Various
|Power=
|Size= Over 500 controlled worlds
|Head of State= First Prince
|Head of Government=
|Governmental Structure= Nominally Representative Democracy, de-facto constitutional feudal monarchy
|State Religion/Ideology=
|Demographics=
|Military Force=*Armed Forces of the Federated Suns
}}
{{Topquote|No one man can govern so vast a realm, even if that man is genius, saint, and hero all at once. And when a man of inferior or even ordinary abilities tries to exercise power over so many worlds and so many billions of people, the result is the tyranny, chaos, ignorance, greed, or hatred that we have already seen too often.|Simon Davion}}

The '''Federated Suns''' is one of the five successor states of the Inner Sphere who are led by House Davion. The Federated Suns are modeled a bit on the modern day USA and the UK, with some other imperialism thrown in there for flavor.

== Founding ==
In the [[Battletech]] universe, the Federated Suns became as they were due to the machinations of one Lucien Davion of the planet New Avalon, who was a soft-spoken idealist who made a name for himself through his charisma and his strong policy; and was well able to use New Avalon's position as regional agri-world supreme to his advantage. When shit in the Terran Hegemony went south; he began a world-hopping tour promising aid and defense to whoever joined a Pact with him. Twenty worlds did, and when Lucien was named first president, the Federated Suns was born.

== House Davion ==
The Federated Suns have typically given the title of First Prince to their ruling executive regardless of gender, and that typically has always gone to a member of House Davion thanks to the political machinations of earlier rulers. While they tend towards being pretty smart, otherwise intelligent rulers who don't have much in the way of major qualms, there are some who have caused inconceivable damage to the Inner Sphere on sheer arrogance alone.

== Society ==
The FedSun society is both tremendously helped and hindered by the sheer size of the Federation's territory in space, which is usually the largest of the Inner Sphere at any one time. People from all walks of life tend to make their home in Federation space due to constitutionally entrenched freedoms of expression, worship, personal enterprise, and political participation, with even the nobility having to watch their ass as specific rules in their constitution allows for their removal if they don't do their jobs well. Even the broke-ass hobos of the Suns will thank their lucky stars that they're not getting beaten for daring to say something against House Davion. As a result, most citizens lord this over pretty much any non-federation person who happens to wander into their space, making them exceptionally aggravating to put up with for more than a few minutes at a time due to their insistence that everybody else is just a bunch of backwards hillbillies.

This comes in to sharp focus from the outside perspective if you dig even slightly a bit below the surface; for all their talk about democracy and the hope for a better tomorrow, the Federated Suns went from constitutional republic to constitutional monarchy in a matter of a hundred years of it's foundation. It's citizenry are battered with insanely high stratification; the nobles are often wildly richer than any average dude in the Federation army could ever hope to be and will have an impossibly better standard of living; which is fine for the golden worlds near the capital world of New Avalon, but anyone out in the boondocks is probably more than fucked. And while their protections for individual freedoms are strong and often ironclad, their labor protections have famously been quite terrible; the Davions made it illegal to strike during the Succession Wars, and it has never been reinstated. These obvious disparities also extend to the education of their citizenry, which varies from world to world and is often wildly so. Most of the golden worlds of the Federation, especially ones close to one of the bigger centers of learning, will be able to go get a decent education. Everyone else will probably get a low-end trade school, if they're lucky. All of this is mostly obscured by a massively pro-military, pro-Davion society that continues to fuel the national character of a bunch of giant egotistical hypocrites.

== Military ==
The AFFS has traditionally been one of the best in the Inner Sphere, due to the absurd amount of money they receive annually to upkeep the many lightyears of space between one end of their space to the other, the insistence of their First Princes having to serve before they ever actually get the job as "First Prince", and an admittedly different but rather simple characteristic of their military that sets them apart from most of the Inner Sphere; their military is just well-organized. The AFFS is on average some of the most well-equipped, and well-supplied among the Inner Sphere; as they believe in ensuring all of their troops, from the grunt to the commanding officer, should always be the most prepared. This was not always the case, however, as before the 2800's there was plenty of individual and interdivisional rivalries between the myriad corps of the Suns, but all of that changed under Melissa Davion, who noticed that replacing Battlemechs was a tall order given how badly the industrial centers of the Federation were battered after the Succession Wars, and made major changes in what became known as her "Model Army", which turned most of their combat units into what are known as Regimental Combat Teams, which are always combined-arms, and quite unlike other units at the time of it's founding, were considered permanent. While Battlemechs are obviously at the forefront, they were now always flanked by infantry, tanks and aerospace fighters, which killed most of the interdepartmental rivalries right quick when they all had to work together to win the day.

Most AFFS regiments use the typical Inner Sphere models of organization to fight, though they typically make sure that the Battlemechs are piloted by the best individual pilots within a regiment regardless of their weight class because they'd rather not engender any idiotic games of grab-ass with each other, and would prefer their Mechwarriors are good at teamwork and shit like that. Because of that, the typical FedSun Mech lance is generally lighter on average than that of their compatriots, but it's counterbalanced by the skill of the pilots and also the sheer number of lances.

Of course, that doesn't mean they win every encounter they've ever been thrown into (just most of them), as their national character of "Space America" has a very nasty reputation of smacking them straight on the ass when they least expect it. This got a big wake-up call when the Jihad happened, which devastated much of the AFFS, and forced a more streamlined, modular and defensive unit setup going forward.

===== Notable Mechs =====
* '''''[[Centurion]]''''': The un-official mascot of any AFFS Lance. Put into service during the first succession war, it's been chugging along with regular updates as a perfectly competent and dangerous 'Mech, but it's almost been replaced due to the feeder mechanism to its Autocannon being a recurring issue, one that only got worse when the company that makes those parts got glassed, but post-jihad they ended up spending trillions making a massively updated version as well as the old version, just with the autocannon manufacturer switched. Newly built Dark Age models are further updated to be OmniMechs structured around an endo-steel chassis, carrying heavier equipment and swapping in different ranges of weapons, C3 and ECM depending on what the lance needs.
* '''''Enforcer''''': The ''other'' mascot of the Federated Suns' Lances. Has largely existed in force primarily due to nobody really blowing up their factories, and as such this dual-role mech has been able to see quite a bit of prominence throughout the Federated Suns throughout the years, to the point that many of the royal regiments and First Princes of the Federation have or have had one that they've used to great effect. One can imagine the pilots of ''Centurion''s and ''Enforcers'' to be pretty fierce rivals because of this. Carries a large laser and jump jets in addition to its autocannon, in contrast to the Centurion's missiles and medium lasers, giving it the much needed agility for a mech of the line. The later "Enforcer III" variants branch out from the standard AC/10 for more variety in the main cannon.
* '''''[[Rifleman]]''''': An ubiquitous anti-air heavy mech with advanced aerial targeting systems, the Rifleman became a common sight in the AFFS where the resource strain of the Succession Wars often forced it into a more generalist fire support role. Equipped with minimal armor, minimal heat sinks and a large number of long ranged weapons, the Rifleman is often considered lacking in head-to-head confrontations with other mechs. House Davion worked several times to "fix" this mech, producing the homegrown Jagermech design(all autocannons, resulting in low damage but no more heat problems) as well as occasional PPC and AC/10 anti-mech refits. Newer version available in later eras, one carries [[Dakka|twin Rotary AC/5s]], while the "III" variant carries double PPC's with double heatsinks to back them up.
* '''''[[Valkyrie (BattleTech)|Valkyrie]]''''': The signature Davion light mech. Originally meant to be SLDF but mass produced by House Davion because a fully automated factory for the things happened to be on New Avalon. The Federated Suns split these fairly evenly throughout their forces and hand them out to mercenaries too. Decently armored but rather slow for a light mech, with a focus on long range missiles at the expense of lacking punch, this mech falls into a supporting scout/harasser role. Most 3050+ refits and new models follow the "laser in right arm, missiles in torso" rule, staying more or less true to the original concept while adding ways to boost speed, range and/or accuracy.
* '''''Wolverine''''': An elder design of the Federated Suns, the Wolverine was designed as a decent middle ground between the ''Mackie'' and the ''Battleaxe'', but was put through about a million different designs before it actually worked. But when it did, it came out swinging. A versatile, mobile and venerable design that took the title of workhorse mech for the Federation for generations, though because it's been so reliable, it's also been rarely updated for modern warfare. Still, if you'd rather have your command mech not overheat from jumping somewhere or from firing once, this is definitely the better choice of mech over the ''Phoenix Hawk''.
* '''''Dervish''''': A speedy, jumping missile boat with several serious design flaws, the Federated Suns ended up with the lion's share of these and never enjoyed it. Known for splitting between short and long range launchers, never committing to one and so having mediocre firepower at either range. [[Derp|Its short range launchers only fire two missiles at a time, but have a full ton of ordnance each in their bins]]. On the flip side, having so many ammunition bins allows for various specialty munitions to be carries. The main issue with this mech would later be fixed with the introduction of MMLs(multi-missile launchers), letting it fire either class of missile from all its tubes.
* '''''Blackjack''''': Another one of House Davion's more maligned mechs, the Blackjack was initially conceived as an anti-infantry SLDF warcrimes machine and later found itself carrying small caliber autocannons and medium lasers. A sort of fire support mech that is annoying at long range and packs a punch if the enemy gets closer. Initially given garrison duty, it eventually got refit with large lasers of all varieties so that it could put out more damage, up to and including the AFFS' new armor-drilling Re-Engineered Lasers in the 32nd century. A seriously upgunned OmniMech model reverse-engineered from Clan tech would become popular throughout the Inner Sphere.

== Downfall and Current state ==
From the Succession Wars to the Dark Age eras in the BattleTech timeline, the Federated Suns were often used as the protagonist state in the Battletech literature, for a long time. Conversely in turn, the faction recently had to suffer for it.

After the glory days of Federated Commonwealth, a dynastic struggle between the too-focused-on-the-clans-to-see-his-own-realm-trouble Victor Steiner Davion and his will-kill-own-mother-to-gain-power sister Catherine, the two realms separated back into the Federated suns and Lyran Commonwealth, and just then, the [[Word of Blake]] started their Jihad.

Idealistic as ever, Federated Suns fully supported the new [[Republic of the Sphere]] championed armistice, and seriously reduced its military.

Its neighbors PRETENDED to reduce their militaries.

As a consequence, when the Inner Sphere heated up again, the Federated Suns was far from good fighting shape.

Worse, it came to be ruled by Caleb Davion. Of questionable sanity, limited military ability and disastrous judgement of character, Caleb's blunders led to the massive military defeat at Palmyra, resulting in his death and the enemy Kuritans and Capellans making deep inroads into the realm, to the point where the Kuritans managed to occupy New Avalon itself.

The Federated Suns last hope is young Julian Davion, a capable military commander with a suitably massive chin. Under his leadership, the remaining Federated Suns military managed to at least stop the enemy advance. Worth mentioning is that they were significantly helped in this by Republic of the Sphere, who offered a significant amount of military backup in their darkest hour.

Unfortunately, when the Republic found itself in its own darkest hour, the Federated Suns were... unable to return the favor due to still dealing with invaders. While the Federated Suns may have become the destination of choice as refuge of the remaining Republic forces after its fall (with the Free Worlds League and Lyran Commonwealth largely either ambivalent or too busy cleaning up house to accommodate ex-Republic soldiers and politicians), this failure is bound to bite them in the ass some day. The fact the Wolves' IlKhan is heir to the Steiner-Davion bloodline and already claims the Archonship makes things less likely to be calm in the future.

{{Battletech Factions}}
[[Category: BattleTech]]

Capellan Confederation

2022-08-16T17:01:53Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: /* Notable Mechs */

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name=
|image= [[Image:Capellans1.png|250px|center]]
|bgcolor= Green
|fgcolor= white
|Capital= Sian
|Official Languages= Han Chinese, Russian, Arabic, English
|Power=
|Size= 217 controlled worlds
|Head of State= Chancellor
|Head of Government=
|Governmental Structure= Maoist Feudalism
|State Religion/Ideology=
|Demographics=
|Military Force=*Capellan Confederation Armed Forces
}}
{{Topquote|Guerilla leaders spend a great deal more time in organization, instruction, agitation, and propaganda work than they do fighting, for their most important job is to win over the people.|Mao Zedong}}
In the [[Battletech]] universe, the '''Capellan Confederation''' is one of the five successor states of the Inner Sphere <s>and it's designated Punching Bag</s> which is under the de facto leadership of House Liao. It is mostly modeled after China (a mash up of Imperial and Communist) with some Russian Influence.
== Origins ==
Unlike the other states that already had ruling families who used charisma, charm, and violence to get their seals stamped onto their section of space, the Capellan Confederation's history has been marred from the beginning with near-constant shitflinging at the Inner Sphere powers and it's own neighbors, and especially the Free Worlds League. The Confederation began life as the Capellan Hegemony, getting into pissing contests with a neighbor the Sarna Supremacy over and over again, causing a number of the inner sphere powers to come down there and beat some sense into those in the Capellan Marches. Naturally, this caused quite a bit of annoyance from pretty much everybody, but especially the myriad worlds within the Marches, most notably Capella itself, which had been founded on the controversial, somewhat insane principals of one Elias Liao, who had fled Terran space after forming an alternative anarchist society and doing terrorism against “Terran Alliance corruption,” and so they banded together to keep the Inner Sphere's hands out of their respective pots, creating the Capellan Commonality.

While the myriad worlds grew closer and closer together; all noblemen feared a possible invasion from the larger powers, and it wasn't necessarily an empty threat. The Capellan Commonality was wildly corrupt and poorly organized, and was often found wanting when it came to military might. Finally, during a peacekeeping mission from the FedSun, one of Elias Liao's descendants brought all of the leaders of the Commonality together, and suggested that all of the myriad worlds of the Commonality surrender their autonomy to a single leader and single party politik, and more or less founded the Capellan Confederation within a month of this meeting, beating back the FedSun peacekeeping forces, and made sure everyone took them seriously by orbitally bombarding up their own fucking capital world of Capella; moving all the important shit to the planet of Sian. And it is there that the Capellan Confederation solidified their existence.

== House Liao ==
The Confederation's head of state is the '''Chancellor''', and that position has historically been run by House Liao. Technically it's not a hereditary post, but in practice it's firmly in Liao's pocket. While many of the other houses have had their bad seeds before eventually getting their shit together, House Liao has stood out for starting crazy, and ''staying'' crazy. Elias Liao had his third eye opened in Tibet, and that particular trait has followed it's way down the line, with nutcases, despots, and full-on basket cases that it's actually easier to list the not-crazy ones.
*'''Sun Tzu Liao''': The face that appears besides "Magnificent Bastard" in Inner Sphere dictionaries. Managed to get the Capellan Confederation back on it's feet after numerous defeats suffered in the first half of the 31st century and got voted in as First Lord of the Second Star League. The thing that made him dangerous was that he was capable of playing the fool to make people underestimate him before using cunning strategies to turn the tables on his rivals. The fact many other nobles among the Great Houses didn’t pay much attention to him helped a lot.

== Society ==
On paper the Capellan Confederation is Egalitarian and Socialist. In practice it falls short of those goals. Most glaringly there is a hereditary nobility which holds the political power within the centralized apparatus of the Capellan State as well as various corporations. Beyond that, the Citizens of the Capellan Confederation do benefit from a fairly comprehensive welfare state and enjoy peaceful and comfortable lives with a comparatively high standard of living and social mobility by IS standards. The issue is that Citizenship in the Capellan Confederation is not something your born into and if you don't earn it (either by not doing well in school or being newly conquered, also you can lose it as a punishment), you're a Servitor. No, not that sort of [[Servitor]] (thank god) but part of an oppressed underclass who does the crap work for bare basic wages as the serfs of the nobility. The only consolation is that it is possible (if difficult) for servitors to earn citizenship and their kids have the same education and opportunities to earn citizenship as everyone else in the confederation. Sun-Tzu Liao added some basic provisions for servitors improving their situation, though it's still a pretty bum lot.

For awhile state propaganda was able to stem the tide of the many, many, many failures of the Succession Wars, but eventually pride amongst the citizens of the Confederation began to wane and the ruling classes attempted to keep everybody in line with tighter controls on media, food, and employment, which were all almost universally reversed under Sun-Tzu Liao, in what became his great social work known as the ''Xin Sheng'', or New Rebirth. With it, more freedoms were given to the individual and more pride of their Han Chinese heritage was instilled into the populace. This served to stem the tide of unrest, but it also led to non-asian citizens catching shit for not being Glorious Han.

== Military ==
Capellans have long suffered as the designated villains of the IS, and as villains used to lose, for a long time, they kept losing worlds, including many important industrial ones. This has forced the Capellan armed forces to make do with what they have, or go the sneaky way if they ever wanted to accomplish something. Part of the problem for them is that House Liao has historically mistrusted their military and often hamstrung it by doing all sorts of inane things to muck up the chain of command, and their officer structure meant that everyone deferred to their superior's word when on the battlefield all the way up, meaning that often the Capellan higher ranks were paralyzed if they couldn't get in touch with Central Command, and often let Mercs be general for a day. And that's just if they were lucky. If they weren't, they'd get an officer who'd come down with what is known as "Hopeless Battle Syndrome", where they will go commit a suicidal last stand to die in a blaze of glory rather than be court-martialed or disciplined for failure. It took the Resurgence for the Confederation to finally start seeing some changes for the better in their armed forces, particularly under the fierce building up under Daoshen Liao.

The only real x-factors the Capellans have had over the years is their tank divisions and their warrior houses. The Armor Divisions, who have spooked the armies of the IS over and over and over again, are often the most well trained and well equipped among the entire Inner Sphere, as they were cheap, easier to put together than Mechs, and more importantly, effectively often rolled out of the factory to fight Mechs. The Warrior Houses are semi-religious elite combined-arms regiments that are trained away from the Armed Forces in seclusion until they are unleashed onto unsuspecting battlefields as the hammer of House Liao. Those who perform well are then often drawn into the Army's own elite squadrons that do mostly the same shit except with some Commissar powers; The Death Commandos. There used to employ Northwind Highlanders mercenaries, which got pawned off to the [[Republic of the Sphere]]. Due to their comparative scarcity in their ranks; the Capellans have almost exclusively used light and medium class mechs as a matter of principal due to their low cost, if they even bother to use them at all. Modern Capellan mechs developed after the resurgence are often noted for possessing advanced camouflaged armor, and thanks to some [[The Periphery|Periphery]] help have been able to put together mechs that can finally start creating meaningful gains in battle.

==== Notable Mechs ====

* '''[[UrbanMech]]''' - embodying the Capellan's resource deprived but scrappy nature. The Urbanmech found life in the Capellan Confederations' military not out of favoritism but necessity due to a lack of resources. In addition, the Confederation's typical use of unconventional warfare meshed well with the UrbanMech's specialization in urban guerilla warfare.
* '''''Firebee''''' - The first-ever Capellan Battlemech design, clearly inspired by the question "What if the ''Stinger'' mech was made by a cartoon supervillain?" It's a nasty little anti-vehicle Light Mech with a Large Laser, and four Maui SRM-2 launchers, with standard and special inferno missile compatibility. Sun-Zu Liao had a liking for this thing, and so he had an upgraded version put into production with the Guardian ECM Suite and Stealth Armor. Eventually got a hard upgrade in the ''Yinghuochong'', which is built on the same chassis.
* '''''[[Cataphract]]''''' - Starting off as a FrankenMech before being standardized, it's an example of the "[[Looted|making do]]" aspect of the Capellan military. It exists essentially as a serial production mech cobbled together from the parts of Shadow Hawk, Phoenix Hawk, and Marauder chassis that were still available from the remaining factories. Left arm from one, right arm from another, that sort of thing. While it is pretty ramshackle as a matter of design, it's got plenty of armor, and it's pair of Autocannons, an AC/5 and an LB-X AC/10, are quite dangerous, though a critical flaw is it runs out of ammo fast.
* '''''Raven''''' - A light mech which emphasizes the guerilla aspect of the Capellan military. It has the honor of being considered one of the first original designs in centuries, and was the first Electronic Warfare specialist mech developed since the succession wars cooled down. It doesn't do a whole lot of damage, but in fairness it isn't really intended to.
* '''''Ti Ts'ang''''' - The "signature" mech of the Confederation, in that it's usually the one used in a lot of Confederation art. Developed at Sun-Tzu Liao's personal request; It's a heavy mech heavily inspired by Han Dynasty Chinese Armor, and it reflects a lot of Sun-Tzu's personal tastes in warfare; it's a medium/close-range specialist designed to be as high-tech and dangerous as the Capellans could make it, and plopping '''five''' ER-Medium Lasers, four ER-Small Lasers, and a fucking battleaxe into it sure as shit does the trick on that. And just to make sure it's a priority target, it has a TAG system integrated into it; which means it can call airstrikes down on unsuspecting heads.
* '''''Vindicator''''' - One of the Confederation's most iconic mechs. Built in the early Succession Wars the mech is designed to strike at targets at any range. Its main armament is a PPC, backed with and LRM-5 to snipe at long range. Along with Medium and Small Laser to fight at short range.
* '''''Yu Huang''''' - The Command-Assault Mech of House Liao's maddened dreams come to life. It's intended to be the emperor of the battlefield, and Sun-Tzu Liao's specifications ensure it gets damn close to that; packing it with 17 tons of armor, an ER-PPC and LRM-10 missile system for long range, and [[BLAM|Two Medium Lasers, one Medium Pulse laser, and an Autocannon/20 for anything stupid enough to try fighting it at short-range.]]

{{Battletech Factions}}

[[Category: BattleTech]]

Lyran Commonwealth

2022-08-16T16:31:42Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: /* Notable Mechs */

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name=
|image= [[Image:Lyrans.jpg|250px|center]]
|bgcolor= DarkBlue
|fgcolor= gold
|Capital= Tharkad
|Official Languages= German
|Power=
|Size= Roughly 300 worlds
|Head of State= Archon
|Head of Government=
|Governmental Structure= Constitutional Monarchy
|State Religion/Ideology=
|Demographics=
|Military Force=*Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces
}}
{{Topquote|One need to know very little to get by in the Lyran Commonwealth: Who to talk to, who not to talk to, and who to persuade with the appropriate number of C-Bills.|Cyril Tslio, ex-Precentor of Donegal Station}}

In the [[Battletech]] universe, the '''Lyran Commonwealth''' is one of the five successor states of the Inner Sphere ruled by House Steiner. It is typically influenced by Imperial Germany and is also notable for being stupidly rich <s>and often richly stupid</s>.
== History ==
The Commonwealth came into being through three trade empires coming together: the Protectorate of Donegal, The Federation of Skye, and the Tamar Pact. The initial charter asked for the Commonwealth to have nine Archons to rule, but the impracticality of it made it that a coup otherwise ensured that one Archon would have complete control.

== House Steiner ==
House Steiner is the traditional noble house that has held a deathgrip on the head of state position in the Lyran Commonwealth; the Archon. While the original Archon seat was held by House Marsden after the coup offed the other eight dysfunctional archons, House Marsden was replaced by House Steiner via marriage once the former’s last male died in combat with the [[Draconis Combine]]. The Commonwealth nominally is a constitutional monarchy, with The Archon and Estates General (parliament) sharing equal power, with the Archon only able to ascend with the Estates' permission, though in reality the Archon is the one in charge. The Steiners themselves are pretty chill, thankfully; only ever suspending rights or privileges in the most dire of circumstances and making sure their heirs are properly educated.

But as a very large noble house among many in the Commonwealth; they are prone to inviting other more aggressive or crazy houses into their midst or one Steiner becoming more popular than another, leading to several Steiner Civil Wars throughout the centuries.

Almost all of them will have been in a Mech by the time they hit the throne, as is tradition for the Commonwealth.

== Society ==
The Lyran Commonwealth fucking loves Germany. House Steiner loves Germany so much they decided that Space Germany needed to be as German as humanly fucking possible; the state language is German, the nobility is set up like Imperial Germany's, the army's entire nomenclature comes from German, and at every available opportunity, the classical German society is attempted to be followed.

Sounds impossible? It mostly is! As opposed to the platonic ideal of everybody in the Commonwealth being a native German displaced from earth, the reality is that the Commonwealth takes and has taken people from all ethnic backgrounds to be part of their iron fisted grasp. While you'd think they'd be at each other's throats, the Lyran's take a different approach; giving the subtle hint to all that it was the descendants of Germany that managed to lift them up from the chaos of the Star League, and bring them to the prosperity they live in now, as well as a dedicated language that they can use for trade, politics, and for leisure, uniting them all under one banner. As a result, discrimination based on race or background is basically unheard of; freedom of expression is allowed more or less uninterrupted, and for now only classism reigns as the supreme form of prejudice, and that is quite a potent form of societal control within their borders.

For you see, the Lyran Commonwealth is the single richest overall state in the entire Inner Sphere, boasting moneyed nobles out the ass and even the average commoner boasts a quality of life far and away better than that of the rest of the Inner Sphere thanks to the generous amounts of money being thrown around. Due to the sort of lassaiz-faire way in which the Steiners dictate on how member worlds govern themselves, many have a deep independent streak to the point that some consider themselves members of their homeworld first, and a Lyran second, which doesn't always end well for everybody, and occasional mini-wars are fought to put their member worlds back into line.

Also, Lyran women have a tradition for having [[Wat|glam-rocker "Jem"-style makeup for whatever reason]].

== Military ==
The Lyran Commonwealth is all about living large and swinging their big, turgid moneydick around, and their warfare is no different. Their most basic and common battle tactic is to swarm the field with enormous Assault or Heavy-class Mechs and simply pound a target into dust with the combined fire of their massive death machines, to the point that any mech under 50 tons is described by commanders as "obnoxious" at best and "useless" at worst. The common in-universe joke of a scout lance for the Commonwealth being a herd of ''Atlas'' is only somewhat an exaggeration. So obsessed with their big stompy boys that the Lyran Commonwealth parks a pair of fucking ''Griffin'' BattleMechs in the throne room to guard the Archon. Each Mech regiment is supported by three regiments of armor, artillery, and infantry in what is known as a Combat team, with the Mech unit's commander being in charge of everything. While the Mechs are quite important, it is their Armor divisions that have often found themselves winning the day, since the Commonwealth can shit tanks out with regularity, and their commanders noted how useful they were in that they did not have to be fucking enormous mechs in order to accomplish their mission, and often found themselves doing the kind of tactical gruntwork that the Mech commanders weren't going to bother with.

The biggest disadvantage of the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces is that it has a very bad habit of giving high ranks and promotions to noticeably undeserving people simply because they are wealthy, from prominent noble houses, or well-connected politically rather than for actual qualification. While this may not be a uniquely Lyran problem (you can straight up buy your way into the officer corps in [[Magistracy of Canopus|Canopus]]), it is definitely at it's most pronounced in the Lyran military. Some of their officers are competent, but the vast majority more are failson noblemen who are more concerned with keeping up appearances, fending off fellow failson officers, and seeking glory than ever leading effectively, and so it is often that the Lyran Commonwealth gets completely overran because they simply do not have the tactical know-how to adequately counter certain strategies, especially if they happen to come from lighter mech lances than what they brought to the table, and are better at fighting defensive wars rather than offensive ones.

==== Notable Mechs ====
* '''''Alfar''''' - A properly Lyran version of a Medium battlemech, meaning it's on the heavier scale and packed to the gills with specialty weapons. While it was very good for it's time, all of the special equipment used in it's construction meant that it ultimately became too costly to repair, and the design went extinct just after the First Succession War, replaced by the designs it was intended to replace.
* '''''Barghest''''' - A heavy, hunched over quadruped Mech that was designed to strike fear in the same way the ''[[Atlas]]'' is intended to. To do that, the weight-savings gained from it's Extralight Fusion Engine is poured into it's weapon systems, a pair of ER-Large Lasers that can hit from half a horizon away and an LB Autocannon/20 for anything that gets up close. While simple, if it's autocannon ever jams, almost half of it's destructive power will go with it.
* '''''Berserker''''' - A truly Lyran Assault mech, in that it's as unga-bunga brain as possible; Having a hatchet, a pair of large pulse lasers, and a Flamer on it, just to make sure. It's also got an ER-PPC, but that's mostly used to force opponents into running or fooling them into getting them into closer range.
* '''''[[Commando]]''''' - The smallest mech the Lyrans will ever tolerate using, an honor born from centuries of reliable service in combat and the fact that it lives up to the phrase "punches above it's weight", using two separate SRM systems and a Medium Laser to give even certain heavy mechs trouble. It's pretty easy to pick off, but it's primarily a hit-and-run specialist that the Lyrans use to either open holes for the Assault Mechs to widen, or land the killing blow from all the holes opened by said Assault mechs.
* '''''Fafnir''''' - An Assault Mech, in that it is 100 tons and has legs. In practice, the ''Fafnir'' is mostly just a platform for a pair of ridiculously large Heavy Gauss Rifles, which dominate the front of the mech, and can put a pair of large projectiles straight through a mech at close-range. It has as much armor as some of the lighter mechs in the universe weigh, and really can't be too far from the supply lines, for while it's enormous guns are prodigious, it's only got a pair of Medium lasers and a pulse laser for when it's Gauss Rifles run out of ammo.
* '''''[[Griffin]]''''' - A medium mech that's been around since the Star League. Sporting a PPC and LRM-10, the mech excels as a long-range sniper mech, hitting targets from afar and avoiding close range combat. These mech have been a favorite of the Lyrans, and at least two of them stand guard in the Archon's throne room to emphasis on the Lyrans "bigger is better" mindset.
* '''''Thunder Hawk''''' - Your typical Lyran Assault Mech, in that it could flatten a city on it's own, is almost as armored as an ''Atlas'' but moves slower than most other mechs. It packs three gauss rifles and four medium lasers as it's armament, of which the Gauss Rifles are it's main threat.
* '''''Wolfhound''''' - A light mech which was designed to counter the Draconis Combines Panther mech. Armed with Large Laser and four Medium Laser the mech was prone to overheating when it fired its weapons repeatedly. The re-introduction of Star League tech help alleviant some of this problems though.
* '''''Zeus''''' - Because the rest of the Inner Sphere wasn't indulging the Lyran military in glorious close-mech combat, the armed forces requested a design that would play down to their standards, and what they got was a rugged, 80-ton hit-and-run mech, truly showing just where the priorities for the Commonwealth really are. It's able to keep up with mechs lighter than itself, and carries an AC/5, an LRM-15 for long-range, and it's signature design strengths; a Large Laser/Two Small Laser combo that was made smaller than normal to save on weight. Got upgraded to the ''Zeus X'' during the Clan invasion with more armor, guns, and internal power.
*'''''[[Hollander]]''''' - A lightweight Mech designed to be an artillery unit, it basically took a small mech and mated it with a large gauss cannon to serve as a portable fire support unit. Naturally, the Lyrans weren't too fond of the design.

{{Battletech Factions}}
[[Category: BattleTech]]

Free Worlds League

2022-08-16T16:30:44Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: /* Notable Mechs */

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name=
|image= [[Image:HouseMarik1.png|250px|center]]
|bgcolor= Purple
|fgcolor= LightCyan
|Capital= Atreus
|Official Languages= Most spoken human languages
|Size= Over 330 worlds
|Head of State= Captain-General
|Head of Government=
|Governmental Structure= Parliamentary Federation
|State Religion/Ideology=
|Demographics=
|Military Force=*Free Worlds League Military
}}
In the [[Battletech]] setting, the '''Free Worlds League''' is one of the five successor states in the Inner Sphere. Of the successor states the Free Worlds League could be described as the loosest and (at least on paper) the most democratic. Even so much of the leadership has fallen de-facto to House Marik's pockets.

They are notably the only Successor State to have briefly died thanks to the Word of Blake's machinations as well as years of infighting going hot all at once, but then came back again.

== Origins ==
The Free Worlds League started life as several individual worlds and states, most prominently the Marik Commonwealth, The Federation of Oriente, and Regulan Principality, who all came together post-Terran Alliance collapse to mutually form together to face oncoming threats and hopefully spread their burgeoning state through trade rather than conquest, which was immediately set aside once they had needled their immediate neighbor; the dictatorial Stewart Commonality into open war, which thanks to their now combined forces, needed a strong leader to put them all into line. Thus began the creation of the position of Captain-General, and from then on, it was history. What would become the general borders of the Free Worlds would be solidified just before the Age of War, with the planet of Andurien being it's biggest conquest, which in hindsight would become it's biggest headache, as it would have to deal with regular incursions from the [[Capellan Confederation]] for much of it's initial existence over this one planet for the next several hundred years.

The first iteration of the Free Worlds League was completely dissolved and disbanded during the Word Of Blake Jihad; as the Captain-General at the time; Thomas Marik, was in-fact also the supreme master of the Word of Blake, and the entire extended Marik family immediately began making claims to the title, leading ultimately to the state balkanizing itself over the course of the Jihad, losing hundreds of worlds to their neighbors.

The current iteration of the Free Worlds League came into being in the 3080's as a result of the hard work of Jessica Marik, the daughter of Thomas Marik’s body double, who had long since dreamed of reforming it after it's dissolution post-Jihad, and worked hard to get the resultant individual states back under the Marik banner. She did it, but the unity of this one is much more fragmented, especially after Clanner refugees were given amnesty in the new FWL's borders.

== House Marik ==
On paper (and to a large degree in practice) the Free Worlds League is run by a Parliament whose members are mostly elected democratically as each world sees fit, though there are a few non-democratic planets. Each FWL affiliated world has a lot of autonomy in that framework. Less formally, power in the League has fallen into the office of Captain-General, the supreme commander of the Free Worlds League military. People are technically appointed as Captain-Generals by parliament. In practice, the office is the exclusive domain of House Marik and parliamentary approval is just a rubber stamp on succession.

While most Mariks are generally considered less of a major pain in the ass than other major noble houses, there is specifically one, the real Thomas Marik, that stands out as obviously the worst one as he was the head of the [[Word of Blake]]. Once he got killed, all the cadet branches of House Marik and the regional nobles began fighting amongst themselves in what was basically a “mini-Succession Wars” in League space until Jessica Marik reunified the bulk of the provinces together again with help from the Sea Fox and Spirit Cat clanners (who were seeking safe shores once Grey Monday wrecked the Republic and HPG network).

== Society ==
Life in the Free Worlds League is as diverse as it gets in the Battletech universe, simply because being in the Free Worlds League isn't exactly as enthusiastic about being an autocratic state like the other Successor States, it sees itself in a more democratic light, with no overarching pre-20th century civilization that it apes for cultural significance. Often, the traditions of larger worlds within the League like Atreus, Andurien, Oriente, or Regulus will impose themselves on immediate stellar neighbors due to proximity, but no pre-FTL societal trend is constant within the League. As a result, the people of the Free Worlds League are far more individualistic and varied than your average Inner Sphere citizen, but as a result are also way less loyal to the concept of the Free Worlds League, meaning that sustained war or much open conflict that isn't defensive is enormously unpopular to the average Free Worlder, because that may not be their thing, or more importantly, not very profitable.

Really, if there's any sort of cultural stereotype of the Free Worlds League, it's that they're all money-grubbing business types, obsessed with free markets and are often noted for having trouble understanding philosophy that doesn't involve money in an any way. The average entrepreneur in the FWL is noted for their aggression and often their keen and ferocious business-savvy, meaning industry thrives in FWL space. However, much of that money began life in a less than reputable way; piracy, gun-running, you name it, the FWL probably harbored the criminal that did it. And as a result, many Free Worlders don't really see certain kinds of crime as that big a deal. Notably, they have an open fury towards those who augment their body with bionics. While prosthesis due to injuries are okay, any other augmentics, especially non-essential ones, are considered worthy of ridicule and open violence in some places. This was part of the reason why the real Thomas Marik had to go to ComStar (and later their Blakist schismatics) once he got horrible scarred and rebuild after an accident while the body double had to take over. This did not get any better during the Word of Blake Jihad at all.

== Military ==
The FWLM is a typical Inner Sphere military, split specifically into Federal and Provincal units, of which the latter were much more widespread in the league's history. While the Federal troops were 100% loyal and answerable to the Captain-General, the Provincal units were largely self-supplied, raised, and trained by their respective provinces. While this worked for a time, it inevitably led to an act that allowed Provinces to withhold their troops, and the Captain-General eventually put a stop to it when invasions began causing trouble in their borders from both sides.

The FWLM started out a combined-arms military, with some of the best naval capacity in the Inner Sphere due to the League's founding from an empire of traders. They preferred no specific type of Battlemech, armor, or aerospace fighter, choosing instead to build their units in the boring way of "whatever was best for the job at hand", allowing them to be a good middle ground for the Inner Sphere armies; just good enough to hold their own, but often too spread out and fractious throughout their history to really become major conquerors. Their elite battlemech formations were among the best of the Inner Sphere, and the most openly feudal, what with names like "Knights of the Inner Sphere".

===== Notable Mechs =====
* '''''Anzu''''' - The League's unofficial mascot mech built in the 31st century after it's reformation. It's sort of designed as a ''[[Shadow Hawk]]'' clone with more energy weapons, as well as one scary L-PPC, allowing it to become a dependable mid-range threat and a darling among League Mechwarriors.
* '''''Albatross''''' - A bizarre-looking [[beakie]] Assault mech built specifically so that the League could have something that could take out the Clan OmniMechs, since they knew that was probably going to be a big problem for them in the near future. Doesn't really have a set role in any lance, and so it's the Jack-Of-All-Trades Mech; capable of hitting from any distance and dangerous at most of them.
* '''''[[Awesome (BattleTech)|Awesome]]''''' - A mech that more than lives up to its name. Its a massive Assault Mech that's armed with 3 PPC's, and a small laser, with good amount of armor and heat sinks to keep in the battlefield for a long time; usually the posterchild for what people consider a "ZombieMech" due to it's incredible ability to take a beating.
* '''''Orion''''' - The League's staple mech from the time of the Star League all the way to the present. While it gets called a poor man's ''[[Atlas]]'', that still makes it a pretty solid mech. Has plenty of armor, and a spacious chest cavity means that ground crews adore working in this thing because it's not cram-packed with stuff it doesn't need. The mech was used by Alexander Kerensky's in the war against Amaris. The mech even has a IIC version used exclusively by Clan Wolf.
* '''''[[Yeoman (Battletech)|Yeoman]]''''' - a Heavy fire support Mech that consists of a cockpit on legs with two massive missile pods attached to it, it can be considered the FWL answer to the [[Catapult]].
* '''''Grand Titan''''' - An Assault Mech built to be the close-quarters combatant of the future, It has the rather awkward position of being associated with both the League and also the Word of Blake. Nevertheless, it owns it's role as a brawler; carrying an array of pulse lasers in large, medium, and small size, as well as an SRM and LRM system.
* '''''Patriot''''' - A mech designed to be an artillery platform as well as a command mech so that the League wouldn't lose valuable strategic minds over something as stupid as "personal honor" or some crazy bullshit like that, but turned out to be a strong enough design to do well in other roles. It's notably equipped with a guardian ECM suite designed to make sure everyone can hear whoever's jabbering over the sound of it's missile launcher/artillery round left arm blasting things to fucking death.

==TLDR==
A kitbash of the United States, France, Greece, Israel, Yugoslavia, Austria-Hungary, and the Holy Roman Empire. Every bit as unstable as it sounds.

{{Battletech Factions}}
[[Category: BattleTech]]

Draconis Combine

2022-08-16T16:29:46Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: /* Notable Mechs */

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name=
|image= [[Image:056305F5-09B6-4E2D-9C7F-DB74714C94E3.png|250px|center]]
|bgcolor= DarkRed
|fgcolor= white
|Capital= Luthien
|Official Languages= Japanese, Swedish
|Power=
|Size= Around 350 controlled worlds
|Head of State= Coordinator
|Head of Government=
|Governmental Structure=
|State Religion/Ideology=
|Demographics=
|Military Force=*Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery
*Draconis Combine Admiralty
}}
{{Topquote|Always preserve the dragon and its magic will keep you strong.|Shiro Kurita}}

In the [[Battletech]] setting, the '''Draconis Combine''' is one of the five successor states of the Inner Sphere who are led by <s>The Rightful Rulers of the Galaxy</s> House Kurita. They are modeled to a large degree after Japan, with bits taken from the Sengoku Jidai, the Tokugawa Shogunate and Imperial Japan 1930-1945.

== Origins ==

The Combine was formed from the work of the legendary Shiro Kurita, a nobleman who was raised in an exceptionally traditional household, which held to even 17th century Japanese thinking and manners. Shiro, as well as his brother Urizen, were power hungry and destined to hold control; with Shiro using all the political games in the book to gain power on the planet of New Samarkand, and his brother quickly becoming his top military advisor. Eventually, he was able to create an alliance with a neighboring planet in Galedon V to help strong-arm a Mercantile alliance into helping them build a merchant fleet. By 2319, they'd built a burgeoning empire that had swiftly proven itself against most of it's neighboring foes, and Shiro crowned the alliance by it's new name, the Draconis Combine, after a region of space it once bordered and then completely subsumed, which it has been ever since.

== House Kurita ==
Since the Combine's founding, the Combine's Coordinators have largely come from House Kurita, aside from a two hundred year period where only tangentially related bloodlines got their turn, only to give up the Chrysanthemum Throne willingly as the Kuritas married themselves back onto the throne, to the delight of everybody.

Their general character is a bit hard to pin down aside from their imperious, expansionist rhetoric. While most have been perfectly competent and generally dull characters on the galactic stage, those Kurita Coordinators who have distinguished themselves to the larger Inner Sphere community did so in huge ways. This is largely because of the Combine's insistence on keeping the mystique of the position as the autocrat and more or less god figure and the raising of a nobility; meaning that if the Combine suffered any sort of setback, that all fell at their feet, and repeated failure often ended in assassination from the overeager military or aggrieved nobles, or seppuku from the shame of some especially great failure. As a result, much of the Coordinator's job is managing not just the armed forces, but the expectations and fall guys so that they can cover their own ass; often by ensuring that their actual spoken orders are exceptionally vague, to the point of being Haiku in certain circumstances.

Chances are if you're seeing a Kurita's name more than once, it's because they're either exceptionally adept leaders and conquerors, or exceptionally insane dictators.

==== Notable Kurita Coordinators ====
* '''Shiro Kurita''' - Founder and creator of the Combine along with his brother Urizen. Usually considered one of the top 3 Coordinators if not the best one. Flew a dope custom ''Sabre'' AeroSpace Fighter as a hobby.
* '''The Von Rohrs Bloodline''' - An illegitimate child of one of the earlier Kuritas by the name of Nihongi came to hate his Kurita bloodline after the Coordinator at the time killed his dad, and hatched a plot to take over the Combine from within. Of course, thanks to the politics of the time, his dad got axed before he ever got a chance, and he decided to just execute Parker Kurita, the last mainline member of Shiro's line, and ended up the sole remaining heir. Naturally quite stunned and terrified by having accidentally painted the largest target on his back possible, Nihongi secluded himself and several of his successors, while never once trying to actually better the Combine in any way, causing much of it's major issues from the Rasalhague league at the time.
* '''Martin McAllister''' - A Rasalhague noble previously distant relative of the Kuritas who married into the Sorenson family. Previously distinguished as a DCMS strategist and warrior, he inevitably was the man responsible for the deposement of the Van Rohrs, and once again put the bloodline of the Kuritas back on the throne. Died young, however.
* '''Siriwan Kurita, the Dragon Lady''' - Martin's daughter, who lost her mother at a young age. While the Kurita's especially conservative ideas on whether or not women got to be on the throne was a bit of an obstacle, Martin suggested she find a distant cousin and marry up that way, and marry she did until her spouse died of "mysterious causes", and she became Regent while guiding her infant child who would inevitably become Coordinator when he became a man. She ended up being a fantastic and exceptionally smart Coordinator who kept the warfare to a minimum while reigning absolute for almost four decades, only giving up power to her kid who died under a similar set of "Mysterious causes" as well as his heir, causing her to end up Coordinator again. While she enjoyed the gig, the nobility was starting to get wise to the fact that she almost certainly had a hand in her spouse/child's deaths, and she at long last abdicated to her granddaughter after two years. She is the only person in the family to have been Coordinator three separate times thanks to the quirks in the line of succession.
* '''Urizen Kurita II''' - The Star League's ailing health needed to be nudged along by somebody, and that somebody was this guy, at least within the confines of the Combine.
* '''Takiro Kurita''' - Previously sort of a monk-like figure when he took the job, he dissuaded any doubt that he would be a capable leader of the Combine's armed forces by surviving an assassination attempt by the ISF, torturing the men to find out who paid them, then killing the two men who performed the act and their male heirs. Ruled through the twilight of the Star League, and begged his son, Minoru, to treat the situation carefully on his deathbed.
* '''Minoru Kurita''' - Minoru, Takiro's son, ignored his dying father's wishes and basically began the Succession Wars on his own, and as a result more or less created the first bad backslide of humanity into [[LosTech]]. Got boom-headshot'd by a Federated Suns Sniper during the First Succession War.
* '''Jinjiro Kurita''' - The son of Minoru. While starting off his childhood as a decent kid, the death of his mother who was a concubine caught up in political infighting traumatized him and made him… [[That Guy|off]] despite his tactical savviness. After hearing his dad had been killed, he made the very normal and obvious decision in that situation, and ordered a planet-wide scouring of the planet he had died on, ending up killing '''52 Million people''' to the point that he was fed up with guns involvement, and just began hacking people down with Katanas himself. Surprisingly, he didn't turn out to be the most stable individual; as he started the Second Succession War based on terrible information, and was constantly plagued by psychotic episodes regarding the [[Clan Wolverine|Minnesota Tribe]] once they appeared, finally going straight over the edge when somebody sent him a doll of a Star League Officer past his security detail. This made him permanently lose his mind and he hung himself in solitary confinement.
* '''Takashi Kurita''' - Coordinator during the Third Succession War. Unlike the previous two Coordinators, Takashi was not a complete raving lunatic and/or glory-hound...at first. While he had some diplomatic traits, he was still an expansionist and a brutal driver of his armies through his kid, and had a fierce rivalry with Wolf's Dragoons that continued up to his dying day. To his anger, his kid ended up being pretty non-traditional when it came to warfare but also wildly successful; and ultimately made Combine tactics look hilariously out of date. THEN he begins his spiral into being a complete raving lunatic and glory hound until he basically gets locked in place by his son who wanted to protect his grandmother, gets a medical treatment that cures him of being nuts, but it only came too late as he found out that he'd been played into weakening either the Combine or strengthening the legend of the Dragoons, and chose to commit Seppuku with his son at his side.
* '''Theodore Kurita''' - The greatest Coordinator-General of the Combine, bar none. His mother's only child, she lavished him with love and care and his family made good and goddamn sure he was set up for success in life, and he hit the ground running as the commander of a Penal legion that he turned into an incredible fighting force, making enormous changes to the way the Combine fought, and distinguished himself as able to defend and attack during both the War of 3039 and also the Clan Invasion, using tactics almost counter to what Bushido demanded. His father hated that, but he was inevitably humbled by Teddy's genius and his own familial love. When he was crowned Coordinator, he immediately made getting rid of the Clans a #1 priority, and began recruiting from the ranks of Women and Criminals to bolster the Combine's ranks, and successfully convinced the Inner Sphere to help him go fuck up Clan Smoke Jaguar, then was named First Lord of the rebuilt Star League. Had plenty of enemies from the ''Kokuryu-Kai'', or Black Dragon Collective, who were hardliners who thought his reforms were detrimental to the Combine, and spent a lot of his downtime fighting them off, especially during the Jihad.
* '''Yori Kurita''' - The second woman to be Coordinator. She only ever got to the position in 32nd century because of a series of unrelated mishaps that got her promoted from "unimportant minor noble" to "Queen of the Dragon" in very short order. While there were some initial grumblings, what with her initial bringing to the court having been done by a Warlord who openly wasn't a fan of the last few guys to take the throne, she pretty quickly made herself a competent and ruthless Coordinator, including finally...''finally'' getting one over on the Federated Suns, to the point that the Combine took their capital under her watch. Granted, her ascension to the throne involved overthrowing the mainline Kurita's in a coup and crippling the Combine in a civil war that flanderized them back to their pre-Theodore-era lunatic selves which pissed a lot of people the fuck off out of universe.

== Society ==
The Combine's society is, as stated above, influenced greatly by Feudal and Imperial Japan, and is separated largely into what is called the "Five Pillars" of Draconis society, each with it's own symbolic meaning, which largely helps people within those pillars define themselves and define their worldview. They are:

# '''The Pillar of Gold''': The head of government, known as the Coordinator, and all their myriad ministries and bureaus that help govern the Combine and keep it both loyal and under the Coordinator's thumb.
# '''The Pillar of Steel''': All Combine military, sometimes referred to as the "Arm of the Dragon". While nominally led by the Coordinator, most Coordinators have their Tai-Shu, or Warlords, deal with the day-to-day running of the various military ops of the Combine, specifically to allow the Coordinator to cover their ass in case their orders turn out to not work. Most of the Combine's military adhere to some form of the Bushido code, and all are expected to follow a superior's orders to the death. Given that they place an emphasis on hard and fast Battlemech assaults, as well as the open threat of death looming, it's not especially hard to get with the program. If you survive however, you'll be a capable warrior and well-respected within Draconis society, as regardless of position, military members are treated well.
# '''The Pillar of Teak''': The non-military sector of Draconis life, combined with cultural indoctrination. Basically a caste system consisting of nobles, warriors, craftspeople, common laborers, and then the vestiges of society consisting of outcasts and criminal elements. If you know anything about Imperial Japan or the Sengoku period, just assume much of Draconis society follows that because everyone who lives within their borders is the biggest fucking weeb to ever exist, to the point of openly demanding any government official or noble learn the Japanese language just to make sure they keep up to date on it.
# '''The Pillar of Ivory''': Religious and Spiritual leaders and advisory. Unsurprisingly, Shinto, Buddhism, and any collectivist philosophy does especially well within Combine space as Shiro intended it to be, and every non-eastern philosophy, and especially any individualist or egalitarian philosophy gets pretty tightly controlled.
# '''The Pillar of Jade''': The manufacturers and merchants. The Combine has historically never been especially big on resources, and the succession wars didn't do that any favors, so most of the economy is run by the state. There are independent companies, but they pale in comparison to the vast number of powerful state-backed companies that have been cut into two categories; Military and Civilian, ensuring maximum exploitation of what little the Combine has.

In general terms, the Draconis Combine could be best be described as a Feudal Fascist Empire (not unlike the Japanese Empire with a twist of state-sponsored mega corps) being authoritarian, reactionary, militaristic, nationalistic, chauvinistic (including being rather sexist) with tight cooperation between the state and corporate power blocks and a mentality that it is the highest honor to die for Coordinator and Combine. While it may be limited in scope, marginalized by the nobility, corrupt, ineffective or simply a sham, the other four successor states make at least some pretext to democratic government. The Draconis Combine does not. The Coordinator Reigns, the Nobles and Warlords rule and command on his behalf, the people obey.

This is not to say that more liberal minded individuals don't exist in Combine Space, see Theodore Kurita. But even when a reformer reaches the height of power in the Combine they would face significant resistance and push-back from entrenched conservative blocks up to and including Civil War.

== Military ==
The Combine lives by the old ''Bushido'' code for all things, but most specially in warfare, which has been part of their success as much as it has been their downfall. They are among the most dangerous and vicious of the entire Inner Sphere's militaries, but their warfare has a fucking enormous cost to it; they prefer absolute loyalty to their superior officers, and a rigid adherence to the concepts of frontal assault warfare, often fighting to the last man and refusing to retreat even in the face of overwhelming odds. This means in the face of battle, they've often been completely outclassed by commanders who were able to adjust to what the Combine was giving them and fight back. Further, their officer corps are often subject to the same politiking as their nobility, and are often trying to cover their ass. It should say something that one guy almost 500 years into their existence would become their best general simply because he'd dare to adjust tactics against an enemy.

While this likely would've been the easiest place for the creators of Battletech to just let Gundams exist, the Draconis are more well known for creating Particle blasting speed demons and walking samurai armor mechs. They are also well-known for only using Light and Heavy-class Mechs in their warfare; seeing Medium-class Mechs as a poor compromise for what they want to do; which is to attack as fast and as hard as possible, their mechs bristling with armaments and clad in bright [[Speed Freek|red and gold]] paint, and they ''love'' their Battlemechs. To the exclusion of almost everything else. Seriously, it got to the point that it took almost 500 years for things like tanks to become widespread in their military due to years of Coordinators playing favorites with the Mechwarriors.

===== Notable Mechs=====
* '''''Hatamoto-Chi''''' - The signature Assault Mech of the Combine, which looks like a mech designed in the image of Super Shredder. Essentially two different mech designs merged into one, it's a formidable, tough-as-nails close-range Assault mech with the one minor flaw of generally being rather difficult to keep heat control on.
* '''''Dragon''''' - While the ''Hatamoto-Chi'' might be the most recognizable, the ''Dragon'' and it's upgrade, the ''Great Dragon'', were unquestionably some of the DCMS' favorite mechs. It's a fast, flexible, hard to knock over, capable of carrying huge guns, and generally ubiquitous part in any Combine regiment, and well-loved by it's pilots. However, for a Heavy Mech it's considered slightly undergunned due to the Combine's insistence on "Light or Heavy Mechs only" creating what many consider an oversized Medium Mech for the same roles as a Medium would have, but many ''Dragon'' MechWarriors overcome this by going from their already close-range payload to just straight up brawling. In the 31st century, the ''Great Dragon'' began to replace regular ''Dragon''s due to a generally improved design and stronger weapons cooling.
* '''''[[Jenner]]''''' - Their signature light Mech. A chicken-walker design that was successful usually by ganging up on larger mechs and then peppering them with some form of laser or heat-producing round, then letting their ''Panther'' partners swoop in to land the finishing blow.
* '''''Mauler''''': The finished monster that came out of the failed ''Daboku'' mech prototype, the ''Mauler'' is a 90-ton extremely long-range fighter whose LRM-15s, AC/2, and ER Large Lasers make it at the very least an exceptionally obnoxious armor chipper, or at worst a Mech sniper from hundreds of yards away. Thanks to it's history as the reimagined ''Daboku'', it has an extremely inconsistent history, but that doesn't comfort anybody getting pelted with missiles and laserfire from four counties away. Anything that can get up close to it however has free game to add a ''Mauler'' to their kill total, as it's payload suffers at close rane.
* '''''Panther''''' - Their other signature light Mech. Only 35 tons, this thing can actually keep pace pretty well with others in it's class and is a massive pain in the rear with it's Lord's Light Particle Cannon being a shockingly powerful piece of tech. It runs hot ''very'' quickly, on the other hand.
* '''''Thug''''' - A heavy mech built to be successor of the Warhammer(the battlemech). Initially fielded by the Star League, but the Succession Wars put its production to a halt. Comstar however were able to keep many of them in storage. When the technology became available the Combine resume production of the mech. Its weaponry is a pair of PPCs, and a pari of SRM-6, making it good at either long range or short range combat.

{{Battletech Factions}}
[[Category: BattleTech]]

Federated Suns

2022-08-16T16:28:53Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: /* Notable Mechs */

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name=
|image= [[Image:FedSuns1.png|250px|center]]
|bgcolor= gold
|fgcolor= crimson
|Capital= New Avalon (Currently held by the Draconis Combine)
|Official Languages= Various
|Power=
|Size= Over 500 controlled worlds
|Head of State= First Prince
|Head of Government=
|Governmental Structure= Nominally Representative Democracy, de-facto constitutional feudal monarchy
|State Religion/Ideology=
|Demographics=
|Military Force=*Armed Forces of the Federated Suns
}}
{{Topquote|No one man can govern so vast a realm, even if that man is genius, saint, and hero all at once. And when a man of inferior or even ordinary abilities tries to exercise power over so many worlds and so many billions of people, the result is the tyranny, chaos, ignorance, greed, or hatred that we have already seen too often.|Simon Davion}}

The '''Federated Suns''' is one of the five successor states of the Inner Sphere who are led by House Davion. The Federated Suns are modeled a bit on the modern day USA and the UK, with some other imperialism thrown in there for flavor.

== Founding ==
In the [[Battletech]] universe, the Federated Suns became as they were due to the machinations of one Lucien Davion of the planet New Avalon, who was a soft-spoken idealist who made a name for himself through his charisma and his strong policy; and was well able to use New Avalon's position as regional agri-world supreme to his advantage. When shit in the Terran Hegemony went south; he began a world-hopping tour promising aid and defense to whoever joined a Pact with him. Twenty worlds did, and when Lucien was named first president, the Federated Suns was born.

== House Davion ==
The Federated Suns have typically given the title of First Prince to their ruling executive regardless of gender, and that typically has always gone to a member of House Davion thanks to the political machinations of earlier rulers. While they tend towards being pretty smart, otherwise intelligent rulers who don't have much in the way of major qualms, there are some who have caused inconceivable damage to the Inner Sphere on sheer arrogance alone.

== Society ==
The FedSun society is both tremendously helped and hindered by the sheer size of the Federation's territory in space, which is usually the largest of the Inner Sphere at any one time. People from all walks of life tend to make their home in Federation space due to constitutionally entrenched freedoms of expression, worship, personal enterprise, and political participation, with even the nobility having to watch their ass as specific rules in their constitution allows for their removal if they don't do their jobs well. Even the broke-ass hobos of the Suns will thank their lucky stars that they're not getting beaten for daring to say something against House Davion. As a result, most citizens lord this over pretty much any non-federation person who happens to wander into their space, making them exceptionally aggravating to put up with for more than a few minutes at a time due to their insistence that everybody else is just a bunch of backwards hillbillies.

This comes in to sharp focus from the outside perspective if you dig even slightly a bit below the surface; for all their talk about democracy and the hope for a better tomorrow, the Federated Suns went from constitutional republic to constitutional monarchy in a matter of a hundred years of it's foundation. It's citizenry are battered with insanely high stratification; the nobles are often wildly richer than any average dude in the Federation army could ever hope to be and will have an impossibly better standard of living; which is fine for the golden worlds near the capital world of New Avalon, but anyone out in the boondocks is probably more than fucked. And while their protections for individual freedoms are strong and often ironclad, their labor protections have famously been quite terrible; the Davions made it illegal to strike during the Succession Wars, and it has never been reinstated. These obvious disparities also extend to the education of their citizenry, which varies from world to world and is often wildly so. Most of the golden worlds of the Federation, especially ones close to one of the bigger centers of learning, will be able to go get a decent education. Everyone else will probably get a low-end trade school, if they're lucky. All of this is mostly obscured by a massively pro-military, pro-Davion society that continues to fuel the national character of a bunch of giant egotistical hypocrites.

== Military ==
The AFFS has traditionally been one of the best in the Inner Sphere, due to the absurd amount of money they receive annually to upkeep the many lightyears of space between one end of their space to the other, the insistence of their First Princes having to serve before they ever actually get the job as "First Prince", and an admittedly different but rather simple characteristic of their military that sets them apart from most of the Inner Sphere; their military is just well-organized. The AFFS is on average some of the most well-equipped, and well-supplied among the Inner Sphere; as they believe in ensuring all of their troops, from the grunt to the commanding officer, should always be the most prepared. This was not always the case, however, as before the 2800's there was plenty of individual and interdivisional rivalries between the myriad corps of the Suns, but all of that changed under Melissa Davion, who noticed that replacing Battlemechs was a tall order given how badly the industrial centers of the Federation were battered after the Succession Wars, and made major changes in what became known as her "Model Army", which turned most of their combat units into what are known as Regimental Combat Teams, which are always combined-arms, and quite unlike other units at the time of it's founding, were considered permanent. While Battlemechs are obviously at the forefront, they were now always flanked by infantry, tanks and aerospace fighters, which killed most of the interdepartmental rivalries right quick when they all had to work together to win the day.

Most AFFS regiments use the typical Inner Sphere models of organization to fight, though they typically make sure that the Battlemechs are piloted by the best individual pilots within a regiment regardless of their weight class because they'd rather not engender any idiotic games of grab-ass with each other, and would prefer their Mechwarriors are good at teamwork and shit like that. Because of that, the typical FedSun Mech lance is generally lighter on average than that of their compatriots, but it's counterbalanced by the skill of the pilots and also the sheer number of lances.

Of course, that doesn't mean they win every encounter they've ever been thrown into (just most of them), as their national character of "Space America" has a very nasty reputation of smacking them straight on the ass when they least expect it. This got a big wake-up call when the Jihad happened, which devastated much of the AFFS, and forced a more streamlined, modular and defensive unit setup going forward.

===== Notable Mechs =====
* '''''[[Centurion]]''''': The un-official mascot of any AFFS Lance. Put into service during the first succession war, it's been chugging along with regular updates as a perfectly competent and dangerous 'Mech, but it's almost been replaced due to the feeder mechanism to its Autocannon being a recurring issue, one that only got worse when the company that makes those parts got glassed, but post-jihad they ended up spending trillions making a massively updated version as well as the old version, just with the autocannon manufacturer switched. Newly built Dark Age models are further updated to be OmniMechs structured around an endo-steel chassis, carrying heavier equipment and swapping in different ranges of weapons, C3 and ECM depending on what the lance needs.
* '''''Enforcer''''': The ''other'' mascot of the Federated Suns' Lances. Has largely existed in force primarily due to nobody really blowing up their factories, and as such this dual-role mech has been able to see quite a bit of prominence throughout the Federated Suns throughout the years, to the point that many of the royal regiments and First Princes of the Federation have or have had one that they've used to great effect. One can imagine the pilots of ''Centurion''s and ''Enforcers'' to be pretty fierce rivals because of this. Carries a large laser and jump jets in addition to its autocannon, in contrast to the Centurion's missiles and medium lasers, giving it the much needed agility for a mech of the line. The later "Enforcer III" variants branch out from the standard AC/10 for more variety in the main cannon.
* '''''[[Rifleman]]''''': An ubiquitous anti-air heavy mech with advanced aerial targeting systems, the Rifleman became a common sight in the AFFS where the resource strain of the Succession Wars often forced it into a more generalist fire support role. Equipped with minimal armor, minimal heat sinks and a large number of long ranged weapons, the Rifleman is often considered lacking in head-to-head confrontations with other mechs. House Davion worked several times to "fix" this mech, producing the homegrown Jagermech design(all autocannons, resulting in low damage but no more heat problems) as well as occasional PPC and AC/10 anti-mech refits. Newer version available in later eras, one carries [[Dakka|twin Rotary AC/5s]], while the "III" variant carries double PPC's with double heatsinks to back them up.
* '''''Valkyrie''''': The signature Davion light mech. Originally meant to be SLDF but mass produced by House Davion because a fully automated factory for the things happened to be on New Avalon. The Federated Suns split these fairly evenly throughout their forces and hand them out to mercenaries too. Decently armored but rather slow for a light mech, with a focus on long range missiles at the expense of lacking punch, this mech falls into a supporting scout/harasser role. Most 3050+ refits and new models follow the "laser in right arm, missiles in torso" rule, staying more or less true to the original concept while adding ways to boost speed, range and/or accuracy.
* '''''Wolverine''''': An elder design of the Federated Suns, the Wolverine was designed as a decent middle ground between the ''Mackie'' and the ''Battleaxe'', but was put through about a million different designs before it actually worked. But when it did, it came out swinging. A versatile, mobile and venerable design that took the title of workhorse mech for the Federation for generations, though because it's been so reliable, it's also been rarely updated for modern warfare. Still, if you'd rather have your command mech not overheat from jumping somewhere or from firing once, this is definitely the better choice of mech over the ''Phoenix Hawk''.
* '''''Dervish''''': A speedy, jumping missile boat with several serious design flaws, the Federated Suns ended up with the lion's share of these and never enjoyed it. Known for splitting between short and long range launchers, never committing to one and so having mediocre firepower at either range. [[Derp|Its short range launchers only fire two missiles at a time, but have a full ton of ordnance each in their bins]]. On the flip side, having so many ammunition bins allows for various specialty munitions to be carries. The main issue with this mech would later be fixed with the introduction of MMLs(multi-missile launchers), letting it fire either class of missile from all its tubes.
* '''''Blackjack''''': Another one of House Davion's more maligned mechs, the Blackjack was initially conceived as an anti-infantry SLDF warcrimes machine and later found itself carrying small caliber autocannons and medium lasers. A sort of fire support mech that is annoying at long range and packs a punch if the enemy gets closer. Initially given garrison duty, it eventually got refit with large lasers of all varieties so that it could put out more damage, up to and including the AFFS' new armor-drilling Re-Engineered Lasers in the 32nd century. A seriously upgunned OmniMech model reverse-engineered from Clan tech would become popular throughout the Inner Sphere.

== Downfall and Current state ==
From the Succession Wars to the Dark Age eras in the BattleTech timeline, the Federated Suns were often used as the protagonist state in the Battletech literature, for a long time. Conversely in turn, the faction recently had to suffer for it.

After the glory days of Federated Commonwealth, a dynastic struggle between the too-focused-on-the-clans-to-see-his-own-realm-trouble Victor Steiner Davion and his will-kill-own-mother-to-gain-power sister Catherine, the two realms separated back into the Federated suns and Lyran Commonwealth, and just then, the [[Word of Blake]] started their Jihad.

Idealistic as ever, Federated Suns fully supported the new [[Republic of the Sphere]] championed armistice, and seriously reduced its military.

Its neighbors PRETENDED to reduce their militaries.

As a consequence, when the Inner Sphere heated up again, the Federated Suns was far from good fighting shape.

Worse, it came to be ruled by Caleb Davion. Of questionable sanity, limited military ability and disastrous judgement of character, Caleb's blunders led to the massive military defeat at Palmyra, resulting in his death and the enemy Kuritans and Capellans making deep inroads into the realm, to the point where the Kuritans managed to occupy New Avalon itself.

The Federated Suns last hope is young Julian Davion, a capable military commander with a suitably massive chin. Under his leadership, the remaining Federated Suns military managed to at least stop the enemy advance. Worth mentioning is that they were significantly helped in this by Republic of the Sphere, who offered a significant amount of military backup in their darkest hour.

Unfortunately, when the Republic found itself in its own darkest hour, the Federated Suns were... unable to return the favor due to still dealing with invaders. While the Federated Suns may have become the destination of choice as refuge of the remaining Republic forces after its fall (with the Free Worlds League and Lyran Commonwealth largely either ambivalent or too busy cleaning up house to accommodate ex-Republic soldiers and politicians), this failure is bound to bite them in the ass some day. The fact the Wolves' IlKhan is heir to the Steiner-Davion bloodline and already claims the Archonship makes things less likely to be calm in the future.

{{Battletech Factions}}
[[Category: BattleTech]]

Star League

2022-08-16T16:27:35Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: /* Notable Mechs */

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name=
|image= [[Image:StarLeague1.png|200px]]
|bgcolor= Navy
|fgcolor= #A2ECE6
|Capital= Terra, Asta, Altair, Fomalhaut, Procyon, Sirius, and Rigil Kentarus
|Official Languages= Any human language
|Power=
|Size= The Entire Inner Sphere
|Head of State= First Lord
|Head of Government=
|Governmental Structure= Confederation
|State Religion/Ideology=
|Demographics=
|Military Force=*Star League Defense Force
}}
{{Topquote|The Fall of Rome seemed unthinkable to the people at the time, but inevitable to historians reflecting upon it with the benefit of context.|Mary Pilon}}

{{Topquote|To all citizens of the Inner Sphere do I, Aleksandr Kerensky, send greetings. Know that I have taken the remnant of the Star League Defense Force which has remained true to its purpose beyond the boundaries of the Inner Sphere, beyond the Periphery. I have done this, neither out of disappointment with those whom we leave behind, nor out of spite or disdain, as some will say. No, we have left the Inner Sphere because we love it too much to see it destroyed. In the wake of the Usurper's coup, and the long, bitter fighting that came with it, I fear that my forces would do incalculable, possibly irreparable, harm to our society. We are sworn to ward the Star League and its subjects, not destroy it. Thus, we have left the only homes we have ever known to place the destructive capability of this armada beyond the reach of those who would use it, not for defense, but for conquest. Perhaps, with the might of our 'Mechs and ships out of reach, the leaders who now grapple with one another will relinquish their dreams of subjugating their neighbors and learn to live in peace with them. Perhaps, one day, should mankind step back from the brink of the abyss, we, our children, or our children's children will return, to once more serve and protect and guide the Star League in mankind's quest for the stars. Farewell.|Aleksandr Kerensky}}

'''The Star League''' was a faction in [[Battletech]] that existed from 2570 to 2780, a rough political confederation encompassing most worlds colonized by humanity at that point, with House Cameron at it's head. It is in many ways the high point to which humanity ascended before everything went to shit following it's dissolution.
== History ==
=== Origins ===
The Star League was born of the Age of War, where pretty much all of the Inner Sphere was fighting each other over resources, territory, and technology. Centuries of battle had taken their toll on the weary populace, and the Terran Hegemony, itself merely a small player in the now larger Inner Sphere, had seen an opportunity to maybe cut down on the killings and warfare, especially now that the Battlemech had become the default way of war. The process began in earnest with two noblemen; Albert Marik, and Ian Cameron. Both were extremely disillusioned with the worlds they inherited; Marik and the [[Free Worlds League|FWL]] constantly trying to take the planet Andurien, and Cameron having to deal with the fact that while the Hegemony was still the most technologically advanced state, Terra and its nearby planets had been completely drained of resources, and the Hegemony being relatively small and surrounded by hostile factions at the time meant it could have very easily been subsumed by some other group or coalition if they didn’t set up some safety net. Further, it would have meant that for the first time, man's first home would not matter in the grand scheme of things. Cameron, an idealist, couldn't allow this to happen whatsoever, and began drafting his idea for what would become a massive interstellar confederation that would bring the Age of War to an end. And it started with Albert Marik.

Cameron showed up over the planet of Andurien to sue for peace against the FWL and the nascent [[Capellan Confederation]], who had been fighting for what was now centuries over a single star-system. The Chancellor at the time, Terrence Liao, had no interest in signing a peace treaty for he saw it as a way to legitimize himself, and only dug himself deeper. Albert Marik on the other hand, was far more receptive of the idea, having inherited the Andurien Wars and was exhausted from the quagmire, and indeed was swayed by Cameron's cause. A few more years of war left the Capellans battered, and when Cameron tried again, Terrence, a much older, humbled man, was all too willing to take the suit for peace, especially since it meant Andurien became Capellan property.

From there, Cameron brought Marik and Liao together, and they brought an end to the Andurien Wars with a peace treaty. But far more importantly, in the Terran city of Geneva, they signed a secret second treaty: the establishment of a 50-year implementation treaty that would turn the Terran Hegemony into the Star League. Thus began years of negotiation with the Steiners, the Davions, and especially the Kuritas, all of whom were at first unconvinced of Cameron's desires, and the concept of the league itself, but were at long last swayed by his persuasiveness and his honest, simple goal of uniting humanity. Finally, all three houses agreed, and in 2569, the Combine joined in. Two years later, the Star League was signed into law and all parties joined.

Ian Cameron signed his name on the document, [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|punctuating it with a single tear just above his name]], the only time he had ever faltered in the quest to bring the myriad warring nations together, and he was declared First Lord of the Star League.

=== Height of Glory ===
[[Image:StarLeagueCameron.png|300px|thumb|left|The Federation if it had balls.]]
Now that he had consolidated power in the Inner Sphere, Cameron immediately set about pumping up the Star League's combined military might into dragging the Periphery back under a Terran ruler, which presented a bit of a problem: the [[Taurian Concordat|Taurians]] and the [[Magistracy of Canopus|Canopians]] did ''not'' care for the Inner Sphere as a matter of principle due to their founders being scornful of the Inner Sphere's corruption, and the [[Outworlds Alliance]] had largely been a proxy for House Kurita's expansionism at the time with realpolitik focused on balancing Draconis and Suns relations. Thus sparked the Reunification Wars, where they dragged all parties involved into an all-out, drag 'em down war where two of the three powers got seriously merked, and forced through a lengthy rebuilding process. By the end of it all however, Ian Cameron had died, and his son Nicholas had taken over.

Because there really weren't any real frontiers left to conquer (there was the Deep Periphery, but at that point it was like saying you wanted to conquer a bunch of farms out in the boondocks. It just wasn't worth the effort.), the Star League put it's money towards technology, and under Nicholas' reign, many of the great things that the BattleTech universe takes for granted were discovered, created, and then put into practice; the HPG network, neural-dimensional computing, advanced water purification, and major advances in medical technology such as the Stasis Tube. Star Leaguers were by and large some of the richest, most fulfilled, most well educated, and in general best lived people in the entire history of mankind. And while the Star League Defense Force and House Cameron did have to deal with secretly state-sanctioned piracy or skirmish disputes during the Hidden Wars with the Great Houses, the League's planets and citizens by and large were relatively peaceful with modestly advanced technology shared by the Terran Hegemony.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't last forever.

=== Downfall ===
While their might was considerable, one thing that had become increasingly clear is that after Michael Cameron's death in 2602, the Camerons began a slow but steady decline in impactful leadership. All others after Michael were a pretty quick descent into numerous failsons and paranoid dipshits that ultimately only enriched the SLDF at the expense of everybody else, and their hesitance in the face of inter-league conflict meant that the myriad powers of the League began to believe that they were becoming more important to the League than the League was to them. This, on top of tensions from the Periphery States treated as second-class members with no voting power inevitably led to brush-fire revolts among dissatisfied Periphery citizens. This ultimately led to a coup by the madman Stefan Amaris, who gained the First Lord Nicholas II's trust, and then slew him in a grand show of destruction, and declared himself the new leader of the Star League. The SDLF's commander-general, Alexandr Kerensky, was having absolutely none of that shit, and began the [[Amaris Civil War]], which spanned all the way from the Periphery back down to Terra, and in an extremely bloody confrontation, Kerensky finally, personally, put Amaris down, and ended the so called "Amaris Empire".

But the war had also left the Star League in tatters: worlds were devastated, the entire Terran Hegemony's bureaucracy was gutted by pro-Amaris and pro-SLDF purges, and House Cameron had gone completely extinct. To make matters worse, many powers making up the Star League were now all squabbling and declaring themselves as true heir to the Star League. Worse, Kerensky expected that he'd be called upon to support any one of the Houses that were trying to take over the now-very-dead League, and he'd just spent 14 bloody years feeding his men into a meatgrinder to save it. While the overwhelming majority of the Star League's citizens supported Kerensky if he were to take the throne, all of the Great Houses distrusted him and stripped him of his leadership titles. So on the half-joke of a colleague, he brought [[ComStar]]'s Primus Jerome Blake in to tell him he was going to leave the inner sphere altogether, with as many members of the SLDF as he could, and he would like his help in masking his retreat. Blake naturally resisted, since that meant ComStar was just as susceptible to control, but he ultimately backed down out of respect for Kerensky and after Kerensky negotiated the integration of the SLDF remnants who stayed behind to serves as the Com Guard. With that, the last vestiges of the Star League, it's defense force, left the Inner Sphere entirely, never to be seen again until their grandchildren came back as [[the Clans]].

From there on, the [[Succession Wars]] began.

== Military ==
In general the policy of House Cameron would be to try to get the Inner Sphere to demilitarize as a matter of principle. Mostly through diplomacy and other soft means. A typical pitch would be something along the lines of ''"Things are peaceful nowadays and Mechs and Warships are expensive, dude. We got the Lyrans to scale back their stuff last year and you'll look like a jerk if you didn't cut back a little, ya know. Take a chill pill, give your subjects a tax break and we'll go party on Canopus. Howbout that?"'' [[noblebright|and for the most part, it worked.]]

But for those occasions when diplomacy failed, Star League had the Star League Defense Force (think of a mix of the French Foreign Legion with the UN Peacekeeping Force and you get the idea). Recruiting from all Star League member states, the SLDF grew into the biggest military in the galaxy, and not only did they have the best training, people, and equipment, they had mechs so good it blew everyone else's out of the water. They had the first assault-class mech with fucking jump jets. That's how good they were. They also, somehow, managed to largely be more loyal to the Star League than their parent nations. Sure, there were units that went running to daddy when the assholes started tearing apart humanity, but by and large the SLDF stayed united.

After the Fall of the Star League and unwilling to get involved, the majority of what SLDF forces under the command of Alexander Kerensky left the Inner Sphere for parts unknown. [[The Clans|In the Deep Periphery, they would follow their own radically different course of cultural evolution]].

==== Notable Mechs ====
* '''''Black Knight''''': A frontline specialist Assault Mech, famously a command staple thanks to it's advanced internals and ability to unload a hellacious Energy payload on unsuspecting companies while able to link up and coordinate battle strategy for their own. Another victim of the Succession Wars post-Star League, as the ability to make the electronics that helped it become a boon for commanders was lost. Later variants would almost entirely rip that stuff out in order to make it a more dangerous but one-dimensional combatant.
* '''''Highlander''''': While Star League rule meant that dozens of different designs came to be around the time of Cameron Reign, absolutely no mech embodied the sheer might and technological strength of the Star League like the TV-headed ''Highlander''. While it's Gauss Rifle and Missile launchers were formidable, this 90-ton beast became extremely well-known for being one of the most successful jump-capable Assault Mechs, to the point that a previously-desperate maneuver was innovated and weaponized from the concept of performing a jump and landing straight down on an unsuspecting foe. While it became known as Death From Above, during it's heyday the term used was "''Highlander'' Burial" due to being able to embed Light Mechs entirely into the ground on impact. Tragically, surviving examples of the original version are few and far between thanks to the Succession Wars.
* '''''[[Marauder (BattleTech)|Marauder]]''''': Only very technically a Star League design, as it was intended to be the first generation of new Mechs that would take the SLDF into the future, but became valuable parts of any group that could field them. It's a 75-ton powerful artillery platform with two PPCs, an AC/5, and two Medium Lasers; the ''Marauder'' can cause trouble at any range and take as much punishment as it dealt thanks to it's lamellar armor. Initially quite a difficult fight due to it's unique profile, it's more become known as one of the trademark 'Mechs of Named Inner Sphere characters alongside the ''Warhammer''.
* '''''Mercury''''': Aging scout 'Mechs required a more elegant solution for the SLDF, and this 'Mech was born to combat the rigors of time being placed on their ''Stinger''s and ''Wasp''s. An otherwise typical 20-ton Light Mech used for scouting, what set the ''Mercury'' apart was it's revolutionary "Plug and Play" design for it's Small Lasers; allowing repairs to be done to those in a fraction of the time. It was this system that ultimately inspired the creation of the [[OmniMech]] for the Clans, who inevitably ended up the only people in the universe with the 'Mech after the Star League fell.
* '''''[[Warhammer (BattleTech)|Warhammer]]''''': In the grim darkness of the far future, only named characters ride a ''Warhammer''. Seriously, this 70-ton artillery platform is the one-stop destination for almost every major character in the game that don't end up in their nation's stereotype 'Mech or in a ''Marauder''. It does however acquit itself wonderfully in combat, as it's two large PPCs can do the same amount of damage as an AC/20 with twice the range, with an SRM to cover any other problems that might pop up in front of it.

== Legacy ==
IRL There have been a lot of people over the last six centuries that had/have a romantic view of Ancient [[Rome]]. We see this in everything from Neoclassical Architecture to the Founding Fathers quoting Cicero to Mussolini declaring that he'd Restore the Glory that was Rome. Now imagine that instead of just being an advanced-for-it's-day iron age society with good infrastructure and administration the Romans had colonies on the Moon and Mars, self driving cars and fusion reactors. That's basically how people think of Star League in Battletech. By extension, everyone wants to be the founders of a new Star League made in their own image.

The [[Succession Wars|nuclear scrum]] that set off in 2786 after Kerensky sailed off into the sunset was started by [[Draconis Combine|Coordinator]] Minoru Kurita deciding that he was the new First Lord. The other four Inner Sphere powers had similar views with differences of an "insert-name-here" variety. [[ComStar]]'s view of matters was that none of them were fit for the role and that their objective was to control technology so that they could orchestrate a proper reconstruction of Star League on their terms with the individual power blocks suitably restrained. One of Alexander Kerensky's goals in Operation Exodus was to try to preserve a bastion of [[Star League]] away from the Inner Sphere. After things fell apart and had to be forced back together at gunpoint, Nicholas did a massive societal overhaul. Despite that he maintained that [[The Clans]] were the True inheritors of Star League and that would in time eventually return to try to rebuild it in Alexander Kerensky's name and Nicholas Kerensky's Vision.

== Further Attempts at Inner Sphere Unity ==
=== The Second Star League ===
The Second Star League was a creation largely out of necessity rather than a genuine desire for Inner Sphere peace; for the Clan Invasion had happened, and pretty much every Successor State felt wildly outmatched individually, and so under the watch of one Theodore Kurita, the Inner Sphere united once again to beat back the Clannerscum, and finally managed to force the Clan advance to a standstill, and ultimately broke their entire societal understanding of war underneath their boots.

Of course, the minute that happened, almost everybody immediately began trying to worm their way out of the idea, as each Successor State now had infinitely more power alone than they ever had as a member of the Star League, and centuries of societal change had meant that each nation was wildly different from the group that had signed the initial accords, and way better armed thanks to ComStar's intervention. Pretty much everybody decided that it was a good idea to just call it off and see what happened from there, and they got their answer.

[[Word of Blake|In the form of the Jihad.]]

=== The [[Republic of the Sphere]] ===
The Jihad wrecked pretty much any place it touched, and after Devlin Stone and his massive coalition of military might had re-conquered Terra and dissolved ComStar, the appetite for pretty much any war at all had been well and fully drained from the devastation the Blakists had wrought. So Stone and the Great Houses basically decided that there would be an enormous buffer state placed between themselves and the center of the Inner Sphere, totaling up to 200 worlds. It lasted for about 70 years until the Dark Age hit with the majority of the HPG network being sabotaged on Grey Monday and a bunch of nationalists began clamoring for their former Successor State's control, and the Clans then divebombed into the fractured Republic. The Republic capital managed to hold out for a decade or so with use of the Fortress Wall blocking KF jumps into the heart of the Republic. Up until Devlin Stone secretly played kingmaker to let Clan Wolf pick up the pieces once the wall was reaching it’s use limit.

=== Third Star League ===
With the recent IlClan sourcebook and novels coming out in 2021, it's been confirmed that Clan Wolf was able to breech the Fortress Walls in 3151 (unknown to most, Devlin Stone snuck them the access codes as he believed they were the least terrible of bad outcomes). Clan Wolf then proceeded to [[What|invite]] Clan Jade Falcon to tackle the Republic's forces together before conducting a Trial to take the spoils. While the end result was with Clan Wolf (both Crusader and Exiled reunited) as ilClan and Clans Jade Falcon and the newly reformed Smoke Jaguar (from Fidelis survivors who [[skub|somehow]] let go of their grudge against the Clans for leaving them to die at the Second Star League's hands) as their bodyguards/special forces in recognition of their bravery or cooperation. It's confirmed that a Star League roughly based on Clan culture with assimilated Spheroids is still around in 3250 (though rebellions here and there are still a thing) from Technical Readout Sourcebooks detailing Battlemech models in the form of historical research but any other details are deliberately left vague.

{{Battletech Factions}}
[[Category: BattleTech]]

BattleMech

2022-08-16T16:24:15Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: /* Notable BattleMechs */ Beginning Operation: MECH EXPANSION

'''BattleMechs''' are [[Mecha|legged armored fighting vehicles]] in the [[BattleTech]] Universe. Standing between 8 and 14 meters tall and heavily armed and armored, they are the main heavy ground combat vehicles. A person who operates a BattleMech is known as a MechWarrior.

BattleMechs are what Starfleet Starships are to [[Star Trek]], [[Lightsaber]]s are to [[Star Wars]] and [[Space Marines]] are to [[Warhammer 40,000]]. They are the specific '''Battle'''field '''Tech'''nology that the setting is named for.
== History ==
The BattleMech is the end result of the Myomer technology's use by IndustrialMechs; the Terran Hegemony saw that on some backwater worlds and colonies that some desperate garrisons would use IndustrialMechs for back-line combat, and wanted to see if the technology was actually viable for long-term combat operations. The Hegemony placed Dr. Gregory Atlas, one of the finest scientists of the time, in charge of the project, as he and an army of Hegemony scientists worked to refine the tech for military purposes. The results of these top-secret projects came the tests of the ''[[Mackie]]'' of the 2439, which worked so well that the Hegemony almost immediately chose to put it into production, completely changing the face of warfare from that point on. The Hegemony, naturally, tried to keep this shit under wraps for quite some time, trying to amass as many of them as possible before finally getting the chance to use them against the [[Draconis Combine]] in 2443, completely devastating the Kurita forces save for one tank, who told the greater Inner Sphere community of this miraculous and terrifying new tech. Naturally, everyone and their grandma tried to get their hands on it, taking less than 12 years before the Lyran Commonwealth's daring raid on the planet of Hesperus II received the plans, and therefore the rest of the Inner Sphere began to make their own mechs for warfare, and the Age of War got some great use out of the new tech, which ironically was actually only a prelude to the real zenith of BattleMech development; the birth of the [[Star League]].

The Star League meant the end of the Great Houses playing grab-ass for power (at least, officially) and that all military technology was in the hands of a single monolithic power in relative peace and prosperity, and therefore development of the tech skyrocketed. The invention of Jump Jets, Gauss Rifles, the LAM mech, and myriad electronic and internal improvements, as well as a massive explosion of Mech variants meant that as humanity saw it's peak, so did the BattleMech, even if it only lasted a few hundred years. All of this however came to a grinding halt with the sudden slaying of First Lord John Nicholas II by Stefan Amaris and his [[Amaris Civil War]], where the SLDF had to use everything at it's disposal to gain vengeance for their fallen lord. This stagnation was further exacerbated by the SLDF largely fucking off to the Deep Periphery where nobody would see them again for almost 500 years, leading directly in to the Succession Wars.

The Succession Wars sent humanity on an increasing backslide of technological progress, and the BattleMech suffered dearly for it, to the point that whole classes of Mech almost went extinct due to the sheer level of cost, lack of resources, and plain old lost plans and factories that ultimately wiped scores of Mechs from battlefields across the Inner Sphere. This was only halted 28 years into the 31st century with an enterprising [[Free Worlds League|Free Worlder]]'s unbelievable discovery on the devastated world of Helm; the cave system that spanned much of the underground around the ruined world's old capital held an amazing discovery of a massive Star League-era cache of information stored deep underground that housed life-changing blueprints, schematics of mechs long thought to be rumor or museum pieces, exact material needs, and weapons that hadn't been seen in the Inner Sphere for decades. Naturally, [[ComStar]] tried to get their grubby paws on it all with the intention to destroy it, but the Mercenaries that'd been granted access to the world of Helm fought them off and aggressively disseminated copies of the information throughout the Inner Sphere in order to get back at ComStar for blaming them for war crimes. This set off a new renaissance of development of the technology.

And then the Clans showed up and changed everything with what they had been working on with all that time out in the boondocks.

== The utility of a BattleMech ==
An often asked question (usually by smartasses in the BattleTech general threads) is just how useful a Mech is in a universe that is harder science-fiction than say, [[Star Wars]] or [[40k]], given that they share a universe with Tanks, Hovertanks, AeroSpace Fighters, and Powered Armor. The Answer is largely in both the way wars are fought in BattleTech, and also in performance per C-Bill.

The BattleMech has many advantages that Tanks and Fighters simply can't match in open combat; while an AeroSpace Fighter can absolutely fly better and move faster than any Mech, it's expensive, more resource intensive to use in ground warfare, and is generally better served in upper atmosphere trying to tie up DropShips and Bombers and the like. The Tank is venerable, cheap, mounts a lot of the same guns as a Mech, and hasn't been completely replaced by them and probably never will be, but even with the advances in Fission technology, many tanks are still dependent on comparatively archaic fuel sources and design methods (such as structural weakpoints set towards the roof of the tank that suddenly became much less forgivable in a time of big stompy mechs), and ultimately a devotion to how nice the terrain plays that keep them limited to support or artillery roles. The BattleMech, any of them at all, might be expensive and a big target, but they don't have to worry that much about fueling, all of their armaments are usually far more numerous and pack a much more painful punch than anything else can safely carry, and they have the very useful ability to effectively negate most difficult terrain due to their sheer size, weight, and ability to move in a humanlike fashion, and if they happen to run into some they can't immediately pass through, a good majority of Mechs can simply use Jump Jets to get around them. Most can even get shot to pieces and still run if they manage to keep all the vital shit together, though the company the MechWarrior works for will probably be out a good amount of C-Bills and time for repairs.

And regarding the warfare, BattleTech's universe has a mutually agreed upon set of rules of warfare in the Inner Sphere and also from the Clans that typically ensures that something that can hit a target hard, fast, coordinate with other units, and then protect that position better than the other side could, often many at a time, is more valuable than just firepower or maneuverability. Tanks might be able to do that if you sent a ''bunch'' of them, and as cool as squadrons of Aerospace Fighters can be, neither are built to handle that kind of combat with clear ground objectives that they must take and then hold like a lance of four Mechs, usually all around the same size and with varied payload description, could do on their own. There is a ''reason'' everyone who didn't have the tech at the time wanted one; it saves money in the long run to cut the logistics of a whole company of soldiers and tanks' and fighters' firepower down into four giant robots and their pilots that can shrug off (or at least not be downed by) being shot with an artillery cannon.

Also it's the [[AWESOME|fucking tightest shit imaginable]], and if you seriously need to ask the question "why would someone want to pilot a giant robot" then I'm afraid this game just isn't for you.

== BattleMech Systems ==
{{topquote|Reactor online. Sensors online. Weapons online. All systems nominal.|A typical computer startup sequence in a BattleMech’s cockpit - hyping MechWarrior video gamers since 1989}}

Stemming from their origins from jury-rigged IndustrialMechs being armed for combat by rear line soldiers, BattleMechs share the same general components as their civilian brethren. What makes the former different from the latter is their chassis parts and sensors are generally bulkier, cheaper, and less resistant to combat damage. Additionally, the weapons and piloting mechanisms they carry aren't dedicated to combat and are either less powerful or less responsive. Some BattleMech subsystems are detailed further below.

=== Weaponry ===
* '''Lasers''': Basic directed energy weapon. They are fairly cheap, do fairly consistent damage and since they're powered by the mech's reactor they don't need ammo. That said while they do burn into your enemies' armor, they also generate waste heat.
**'''Small Laser''': Low power and low range, often used on light mechs or as "we got half a ton to spare, what the hell?" add ons to heavier ones.
**'''Medium Laser''': Your basic laser gun.
**'''Large Laser;''': Heavier, long range laser.
**'''Pulse Laser''': Can be small, medium or large. As opposed to a single blast, Pulse Lasers fire several successive times in order to increase damage, though the heat they generate is much higher on average than the normal variants.
* '''Autocannons''': Abbreviated as ''AC''. An enormous machine gun/cannon that fires explosive shells in short bursts. Autocannons have variable ammo caliber sizes and are mostly grouped into categories of default damage numbers. While they don't generate much heat and are often times much better at taking armor off a Mech, they're also dependent on their hard ranges of minimum distance, requiring a lot of maneuvering to make work, and of course they can only carry a limited amount of ammunition.
** '''Autocannon/2''' - The sniper rifle of Autocannons. While it's next to useless in a close-range firefight, it's good at taking potshots from a distance that even LRMs can't reach. Almost anything that has one usually loads up on special munitions to offset the loss of damage.
** '''Autocannon/5''' - Arguably the first Autocannon ever made, it does respectable but not especially impressive damage at longer ranges, and can open just the right armor type in a pinch.
** '''Autocannon/10''' - The gold standard of Autocannons simply due to it's sheer utility; it can do some real damage, has a reasonable range, but critically it also has no minimum range that the MechWarrior has to consider when using it. Most 'Mechs that have an Autocannon will almost certainly default to this or any variant of it.
** '''Autocannon/20''' - The short-range, big damage variant. Can only shoot about a few hundred yards out, but anything dumb enough to be in it's range is pretty much scrap if the Autocannon lands more than one hit.
* '''Particle Projector Cannons''': The other standard Energy weapon, but generally much spicier than any Laser. A massive Cannon that fires a concentrated stream of ions and protons at a target at such velocity and strength that the Mech it's attached to experiences a kickback from it. The Mech that gets hit can experience serious electrical damage from the volley, and as such they are prized parts of any Mech it's attached to; rivalling Autocannons in terms of overall usefulness. The Mech it's attached to has inhibitors to prevent the cannon from frying it's own circuits, but some mad lads play dangerously and pull that particular thing off in dire straits to see what happens when they let the PPC really cook. Comes in a similar range of sizes and utility similar their laser counterparts
* '''Missiles''': You know how these work; a big rocket full of boom comes straight down on your opponent's face. Most Mechs that have them have a dedicated platform designed to deliver the payload; from dedicated missile systems designed to be fired at short, medium, or long ranges aided by fire control systems, or simpler, fixed range missile launchers like the Arrow IV that are designed to even out the terrain of a particularly unlucky stretch of land. Very useful, but prone to jamming due to a reliance on computer tracking.
* '''Gauss Rifle''': A more technologically advanced alternative to the Autocannon among ballistic guns, a Gauss Cannon that has been standardized with powerful electromagnets to shoot a solid metal melon straight into and more often than not through opposing mechs. It generates almost no heat and is quite powerful, but is incredibly energy intensive and often enormous, requiring Mechs to almost be built around that weight limitation rather than the Rifle around the Mech's limitations.
* '''[[Flamer]]s''': They're in BattleTech too! You use them for almost the exact same purpose as you would in another wargame; melting infantry. This is much less useful in BattleTech however given that almost nobody uses full-on infantry anymore, but it can be helpful to raise the heat of a Mech to intolerable levels. The Capellans later invented a variant called Plasma (<s>no, not [[Plasma|that one]]</s>) which uses ionized & viscous foam bullets launched at infantry or light armor like modern white phosphorus or napalm.
* '''Machine Guns''': For killing squirrels. If you're in a mech primarily armed with these you're mostly just there to keep infantry or restless insurgents tied up, or, and I'm sorry to have to break it to you now, you're in the Mech that's expected to die. Machine guns can also be used in Anti Missile Systems like real life Active Protective Systems on modern tanks or Close In Weapon Systems on ships; blasting those pesky missiles out of the sky before they can mess up the paint job. They're also a component for Anti-Battle Armor modules to keep Clanner Elementals from tearing into your cockpit to shoot you in the face.
* '''Melee Weaponry''': While initially wildly impractical as an idea since a mech can carry giant guns and finish a fight against other Mechs without the use of a hand-to-hand weapon, the Succession Wars were such a resource drain that stuff like PPCs and even some variations of lasers couldn't be reliably manufactured and bolted to the giant robot, so mech-sized melee weapons found themselves making comebacks. As they do a point of damage per a certain amount of tonnage from the attacking mech and generate no heat, they can acquit themselves quite well if given to the right MechWarrior, but being in melee range for BattleMechs is generally not a good idea unless it was built/rebuilt from the ground up to brawl. Jump jets in particular are practically mandatory equipment for melee mechs.
** '''Punch''': Most Mechs in the game have some form of hand actuator, which means the most basic form of harm that a human can do is very much available to their giant metal toys. Games running Design Quirk rules can augment certain mechs with the "Battlefists" quirk, which gives further bonuses to hit on such an attack.
** '''Hatchet''': A giant meat cleaver pioneered by the Lyrans. Does a point of damage per every 5 tons of Mech. Given that the average mech in the Lyran Commonwealth is probably 70 tons or more, this makes it a much more dangerous thing than it initially sounds.
** '''Sword''': A standardized sword created as an alternative to the Lyran Hatchet by the Combine. It does a point of damage plus one for every Ten tons of Mech, but thanks to their exceptionally engineered balance, they're easier to hit with than a Hatchet.
** '''Claw''': A hand actuator of the Mech is replaced with a mechanical claw with hardened steel fingers filed to sharp points. Does a point of damager per every 7 tons of mech. Usually seen in the battle arenas of Solaris, it can be an inexpensive armor remover.
** '''Vibroblade''': The closest thing to a chainsword in BattleTech, Only available at the moment on Solaris. Comes in Small, Medium, or Large. Treated as a normal sword when not turned on, when activated it can do far more damage in a single strike than most other melee weapons, but it does generate quite a bit of waste heat as a result.
* '''Taser''': Yes, a taser. Another creation of the late Succession Wars and tested extensively on Solaris. It's a harpoon stuck to a cable that, when shot into a Mech, zaps the internal electronics so badly that the Mech stops entirely, allowing ground crews to take hostages and the Mech to be salvaged. While unquestionably very useful and potentially the smartest way to actually ''fight'' mech-to-mech, these things are mildly explosive, very close range, and require being targeted by eye.

=== Internal systems ===
* '''Myomer''': A synthetic musculature which contracts in on itself when an electrical current is run through it. It lays snug between the chassis skeleton and the armor on the Mech’s actuator limbs and attaches to the diagnostic interpretation computer (a series of processors and cables like nerve cables) to response to neurohelmet commands to the limb actuators and the gyro. Can be upgraded with other variant tech such as Triple Strength Myomer and Myomer Accelerator Signal Circuitry (called MASC) to boost either strength or speed at the risk of more frequent limb breakdowns. Apply 9-volt battery, kick foe in the 'nads.
* '''Engines''': Your standard BattleMech is powered by a hydrogen burning Fusion Reactor. Most vehicles used Internal Combustion Engines, or odder engines like Fuel Cells, and Fission Reactors. Yes, the rare Mech (typically an older model or an experimental one) actually used some of these too, but the Fusion Reactor was the default go-to here. Engines come in all shapes and sizes, though the easiest way to keep your Mech useful is to have an engine that doesn't take up too much valuable space.
* '''Gyros''': Not a sandwich beloved by greeks, but a spinny hunk of high-tech metal that helps the 'Mech stay upright. A close analogy is the series of reaction wheels used to keep real-life satellites, missiles, and torpedoes pointed steadily at their targets. Losing this means your 'Mech gets to lie down for an extended period of time, namely for the rest of the battle.
* '''Armor''': The yang to weaponry's yin. Depending on the tech level you're playing at, can come in flavours ranging from plain ol' vanilla Standard to double-fudge FerroFibrous, caramel Laser Reflective, stealth cloaked, and whatever demented flavour-of-the year that the New Avalon Institute of Science has come up with. Most Mech armor is ablative, meaning that it's designed to slough off when hit and requires swapping in fresh modules after the fight is done.
* '''Jump Jets''': Systems that make the 'Mech bounce along like little bunny Froo-froo. On 'Mechs, they're a fusion-rocket system, however vehicles and infantry sporting them usually use some sort of jet or chemical/liquid-rocket system. Weirder systems have been developed (think mechanical pogo-mounts). Yes, there is a Jump Jet equipped tank called the Kanga. When used in conjunction with reinforced legs in melee, MechWarriors can perform a [[Assault Squad|Death from above]] maneuver to crush any unfortunate S.O.B in their landing zone.
* '''Heat Sinks''': Glorified radiators, Heat Sinks are mechanisms which deal with built up heat, which Mechs can quickly accumulate in combat. Firing lasers, getting hit by flamers, using Jump Jets and so forth can all build up heat which can damage the machine's system and cook a Mech Warrior alive. Double Heat Sinks are more effective than vanilla heat sinks but were also [[LosTech]] up until the 32nd century. Due to waste heat, MechWarriors pilot their vehicles in either refrigerated suits or if those are not available (as the blueprints to make them are kept locked up by [[ComStar|Space AT&T]]) in their undies.
* '''Ammo Storage''': Because you gotta put your bullets and missiles somewhere on your mech before you shoot 'em. If your lucky, you got Cellular Ammunition Storage Equipment (CASE) on your mech, which significantly reduces the chances that it will be set off unintentionally during combat.
* '''Sensors:''' Alternatively called the Target Tracking System or Advanced Fire Control System, they're the eyes and ears that relay environmental and targeting data to a MechWarrior's cockpit; either in the form of neurohelmet VR feed or a cockpit display. Can be augmented from data from other units via the C3 Network, TAG beacons, or satellite feed.
* '''C3 Network:''' short for '''C'''ommand, '''C'''ontrol, and '''C'''ommunication. It's a simple tight-beam comms network that can share targeting data between Mechs. It starts with the Command unit that three slave units (or six 3Ci units, if you're lucky enough to have them) connect to, and then all data collected by any one of the units is automatically shared to the other three. While potent, ECMs wreak havoc on C3 systems, and any lance that has one can be blinded in certain conditions if you figure out where the Command unit is, which is almost always in the Heavy/Assault Mech due to the command unit's size.
* '''ECM Suites:''' Short for '''E'''lectronic '''C'''ounter-'''M'''easure, an ECM is an invaluable piece of hardware that can shut down sensors and communications tech. On the tabletop, it produces a bubble around the Mech that can shut down certain bits of hardware like active probes or C3 systems. They're only available in certain Mechs however, as the technology is extremely precise and the Succession Wars completely robbed the Inner Sphere of the ability to manufacture them.
* '''TAG:''' Short for '''T'''arget '''A'''cquisition '''G'''ear. Composed of a variable spectrum laser for target-marking and rang-finding, it's basically just [[markerlight]]s for Battletech, developed to overcome ECMs. Just expect to be extremely noticed (either as the targeted if you're unlucky to be painted by it or the targeter once every enemy detects your signal and rushed over to wreck your ride). Some alternative targeting gear includes sticky beacons fired by Scouts and missile fire control systems but those suffer from either shorter range or jamming.
* '''Harjel System:''' Using the fast-drying and tar-like substance called Harjel, the system sprays out a black goop that can harden to withstand the vacuum of space or pressures of underwater combat across a broken piece of armor. A little at a time is fine, but if the Mech receives massive damage all at once, the system will just start spraying it every where and whole parts of the Mech will become useless. Removing it is also a bitch, too.
* '''Neurohelmets''': At base, Neurohelmets allow the 'Mech to borrow the pilot's sense of balance (due to the organic ear and spatial orientation system of a human surpassing any robotic control loop that can be coded). More advanced systems (generally [[LosTech]] or ClannerScum) could provide a VR simspace for the pilot and shunt sensor feeds right into the pilot's brain. Also serves as a security system, as they're keyed to the pilot's brainwaves and can fry any pesky intruders’ brains if they don’t bypass the ID validation system. If pilots are not careful and push their Mechs beyond their normal performance, they could suffer neural backlash. Some systems experiment with embedded circuits or neural interfaces inside pilot’s bodies like some Clannner's Enhanced Imaging system or Wobbie cyborg's Vehicular Direct Neural Interface but such tech leaves pilots with a very short lifespans.
* '''Cockpit''': typically mounted in the head of a BattleMech beside some [[Solaris VII]] arena ‘Mechs mounting it in the torso, they contain the basic controls, targeting displays, computer interface, toilet, microwave, and life support systems for a MechWarrior. On the other hand, MechWarriors still need to keep an eye on the thermometer to avoid suffering a heat stroke from the reactor heat. More advance versions can include a Dual Cockpit/Command Console for multiple crew or replaces the basic ejector seat with a sealed Full Head Ejector System capsule to protect pilots from shrapnel or hostile environments when they need to bail away from their Mech before it’s reactor explodes.

== Types of BattleMechs ==
There are several ways to sort out each model from its contemporaries as shown below.

=== Weight Class ===
The most common classification of BattleMechs in-universe is by weight. How it's actually calculated is up in the air, as it doesn't appear to take into account the complete weight of the vehicle (since many Mechs have almost 10-20% of their tonnage taken up by armor), but it's generally agreed upon that this is the optimal "weight" of a fully kitted out BattleMech.

* '''Ultralight Mechs''': Any Mech under 20 tonnes. Mostly used to man garrisons and patrol colonies out in the boondocks for law enforcement and piracy deterrence, they’re basically an aluminum box on legs with some machine guns or grenade launchers wired to a joystick. Depending on your luck, they might be the fastest thing you have or the worst purchase you ever made. Marginally better than a regular armored vehicle for direct fighting, the difference between one of these and an IndustrialMech strapped with ordinance is very, ''very'' difficult to parse.
* '''Light Mechs''': Mechs between 20 and 35 Tonnes. They are normally cheap, easy to deploy, fast and lightly armored and are used for Scouting, Raiding, or in some cases urban defense. In-universe they are usually the most common type of BattleMech known.
* '''Medium Mechs''': Mechs between 40 and 55 Tonnes. Able to throw down better than a Light Mech while being faster and cheaper than a heavy. Also includes specialized support units. Mostly used for tactical needs on paper, but tend to be wildly flexible in practice. Many of the more useful and iconic mechs in the series are in this category if they aren't Heavy Mechs.
* '''Heavy Mechs''': Mechs between 60 and 75 Tonnes. The workhorses of most armies, affordable heavy power while still being able to move faster than a truck heaving forward. Several of the most iconic mechs in the series are in this class.
* '''Assault Mechs''': Mechs between 80 to 100 Tonnes. The heavy hitters; ponderous and pricey but durable with heavy weapons and armor to both take and dispense a serious beatdown. Just what the doctor ordered for the tip of your spear. Unless you get a [[Banshee (BattleTech)|BNS-1S]]. Then people mock you.
* '''Super Heavy Mechs''': Also called Colossal, they’re any Mech that is more than 100 Tonnes. Up until the 31st century, the general consensus was that Mechs more than 100 Tonnes were basically laughably bad penis compensators. After the [[Clan Invasion]] people are beginning to make them work, but logistics keep them towards being niche.

=== Combat Role ===
In terms of combat utility, BattleMechs can be split into certain categories based on their specifications. While some roles may be filled with conventional armored vehicles, they take either a higher weight class or a larger motor pool to compensate.

* '''Scout''': The fastest of the lot but mounting light armaments while armored with tinfoil. These speedsters rely on agility and small size to scoot from place to place before gathering intel from their sensors on the enemy to radio back to their bigger partners. They also like to shoot at the weak spots of any enemy unit they can outflank before running away to avoid being scrapped by returning fire.
* '''Striker''': Second only to scouts in a race while sporting a short ranged arsenal and decent armor. These jocks are meant to run up to enemy units and let loose with all the firepower they can get into range. They work best while charging in a swarm with covering fire from other units as well as terrain that can conceal their approach until they can get the jump on an enemy.
* '''Skirmisher''': Fast moving while outfitted with medium ranged weapons and reasonable armor. They’re generalists who can be flexible jacks-of-all-trades. Often times, they partner with other combat roles for both ends to compensate for each other's short comings. They can also be used for running battles where a scout's paper-thin armor is too light to survive but need fire support from snipers or missile boats during sieges to avoid being turned into swiss cheese by other units with a heavier arsenal.
* '''Brawler''': On the slower range of mobility while kitted with medium-to-long ranged weapons and heavy armor. These guys are the main component of an attack wave. While they're not good at long duration fights and running battles, they serve well as escort units for Juggernauts, as either defensive guards or offensive breachers during sieges, and can flush out hidden units out of their hidey-holes.
* '''Missile Boat''': Sitting back from the front lines, these units seek to provide indirect fire in the form of missiles or artillery shells while hiding behind cover. Compared to snipers, they do not need to have a direct line-of-site on their targets but are more dependent on targeting data from scouts.
* '''Sniper''': Similar to the missile boat but with a long ranged weapon that requires direct line-of-sight, these guys are slower than skirmishers or strikers but their platform stability allows them to take pot-shots at other units reliably. While escorts with short-ranged weapons can make up for their lack of perimeter defense or melee capability, they're best used while hidden away from plain view.
* '''Juggernaut''': The slowest of the pack but possessing powerful short-ranged weapons with thick slabs of armor, these mobile fortresses rely in pure inertia to keep the ball moving forward and can work in unison with other unit classes to get in range of distracted enemy units or fortifications before using their arsenal to delete any target from the field.

=== Other ===
Beyond weight and combat specialty, there are a few other specialized types of BattleMech, each with their own strengths and drawbacks.

* '''Bipedal''': A mech with two legs, most common type; broken down into three separate subcategories such as '''Humanoid''', '''Reverse Joint''', and '''Digitigrade''', however performance between the three is negligible as all three have both standout variants and regrettable variants alike.
*'''Tripodal''': An experimental three-legged variant that's only rarely been used, even when the design idea gained traction in the 32nd century, only four mechs in the entire canon have ever used this variant. What does make them stand out though is their ability to constantly move in any direction without braking and their proven ability to be built as Super-Heavy tonnage.
*'''Quadropedal''': A mech which has four legs instead of two. They have something of a bad reputation for allegedly requiring more crew and less armor, but on the other hand can loose a leg and still be in the fight. Are far less common than Bipedal Mechs, but are still fairly common as mobile fire-boats. Another transformable variant is "Quadvees" among Clan Hell's Horses that can change back and forth into tanks. While they can still fight if the gyro is damaged in tank form, the extra limbs and servos for transforming gives them the same weaknesses of being stuck in one mode after being damaged as their LAM relatives.
*'''SecurityMech''': Sometimes referred to as MilitiaMechs, PoliceMechs, or (if they’re field-modified off existing IndustrialMech chassis) MOD’s, these are basically up-armored and armed IndustrialMechs. Often used for internal policing, quelling riots, fending off giant wildlife, and anti-piracy deterrence, they're usually used for guarding critical infrastructure or facilities that are far from the front lines. Due to their less robust construction, lighter weapon load-out, and less energy intensive engine, they're marginally better than combat vehicles for front line combat. On the other hand, they’re cheap enough that any backwater planet can buy them if atmospheric aircraft and tank use for security isn’t enough and they’re good enough for preventing covert sabotage, banditry, and insurgent activity. Like mainstream BattleMechs, they have their own weight classes: Light (10-15 tons), Medium (20-25 tons), Heavy (30-35 tons), and Assault (40-50 tons).
*'''FrankenMech''': more formally called HybridMechs, they're basically any [[Looted|ad hoc]] and [[Mekboy|non-standardized]] Mech created by cobbling together any spare parts from a dozen other BattleMechs that a mad engineer or desperate pirate can scrounge from their basement without any corporate support or standardized template. Deep in the Periphery, they're also called Corsairs.
*'''[[Robotech|Land Air Mech]]''': sometimes called LAM's. Basically a light mech that can transform from an Aerospace Fighter into a regular mech. They got invented during the Star League and were experimental reconnaissance units but got phased out due to being more fragile than regular fighters and mechs. Out of universe, Battletech developers decided it was too much effort to keep without lawsuits from Harmony Gold (as seen with the infamous "Unseen/Reseen" mech artwork from other IP's).
*'''[[OmniMech]]''': the Lego/Swiss army knive variant of a regular Mech. Can change their loadouts as quickly as diapers' and carry [[Clan Elemental|armored infantry]] but are way more expensive.
*'''ProtoMech''': spanning the gap between Battle Armor that maxes out at 2 metric tonnes and UltraLight BattleMechs below 20 tonnes, ProtoMechs were created by Clan Smoke Jaguar to make the most out of their shrinking resource base after the Second Star League drove them out of the Inner Sphere. While the Clan ultimately died out in the end at the Great Refusal, the ProtoMech Concept remained in use by the Clans for some time. Instead of using a traditional cockpit, a embedded circuitry system grafted under the skin of the pilot (used by some Clan Warriors for traditional Mechs) enabled pilots to use a ProtoMechs’ limbs like their own in a fancy version of augmented reality hooked to mechanical limbs. Additionally, the smaller size and direct interface with a pilot's senses removed the need for a bulky gyro . However, such interfaces still shortened users’ lives and made them feel the loss of limbs as painfully as if it were their own being sheared off. Naturally, outside the Blakists incorporating the interface tech into their Manei Domini cyborgs, no Inner Sphere faction tried to reverse engineer them due to technical issues and ethical concerns. Thus, they remain an obscure niche within some Clans.

== Notable BattleMechs ==
Over the span of seven centuries there has been like a bajillion different makes and models of Battlemechs, most of which have at least a couple variants ranging from swapping out one brand of armor for another to rebuilds which put it into another weight class and combat role. As BattleMechs can last for centuries and are rather resilient things that can more often than not be at least partially salvaged after their pilot has been removed, there are still plenty of vintage units out and kicking. For a comprehensive list, go to [https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page Sarna]. Never the less, here's some notable mechs.

==== Ultralight ====
* Flea - the lovechild of a [[All Terrain Soup|AT-ST]] and a [[Sentinel]] walker. Good speed and sensors but avoid being shot.
* Celerity - Created by Comstar, it's one of the first drone Mechs. Resembles some quadrupedal drones in the real world.
* Road Runner - Called the Emerald Harrier by its Jade Falcon creators, it has the dubious distinction of being sold to the Republic of the Sphere by the Sea Foxes as a nifty scout.
* Prey Seeker - One of the fastest Spheroid Mechs, it was created by the Feds for raiding during the Dark Age.

==== Light ====
*[[UrbanMech]] - The little mech that could!
*[[Hollander]] - Mech with a big gun, or big gun with legs? You decide!
* [[Locust]] - Totally not stolen from Crusher Joe.
* [[Wasp]] - ...or Macross
* [[Stinger]] - Really. Believe us.

==== Medium ====
* [[Shadow Hawk]] - Or any anime inspired by Suns, Fangs, or Dougrams of such.
* [[Hunchback]] - The original "My, what a big gun" mech.
* [[Griffin]] - And back to IP infringement accusations.
* [[Phoenix Hawk]] - Max wants his plane back.

==== Heavy ====
*[[Timber Wolf]] - The bastard lovechild that everyone loves.
*[[Catapult]] - Proud parent of furry children.
* [[Marauder (BattleTech)|Marauder]] - Proud parent of furry children, deported for being an illegal alien from another IP. Than bought back after a redesign to avoid lawsuits.
* [[Rifleman]] - Proud uncle of furry children. Was also deported for shooting other illegal aliens despite being an illegal IP alien as well.

==== Assault ====
*[[Atlas]] - Big Death! Big Death! Big Death!
* [[King Crab]] - Preferred tool for cracking thick shells.
* [[Mackie]] - The Original!(tm) Accept no substitutes!
* [[Banshee (BattleTech)|Banshee]] - The Bradley of the Mech world. Big, fast, lightly armoured, and questionably armed.

==== Super Heavy ====
* Matar - Amaris [[Nazi Equipment|Wunderwaffen]] gambit. [[Fail|Cripple]] due to lack of good legs.
* Omega - Superheavy attempt 2, [[Word of Blake|Wobbie]] boogaloo. First successful prototype no thanks to pillaged ClanTech.
* Poseidon - “War of the Worlds” Tripod meets copious amounts of armor and dakka. 3 man crew required.
* Ares - OmniMech Version of Tripod above. Plug and play configuration modules as needed.

[[Category:BattleTech]]

BattleMech

2022-08-16T15:58:57Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: /* Assault */

'''BattleMechs''' are [[Mecha|legged armored fighting vehicles]] in the [[BattleTech]] Universe. Standing between 8 and 14 meters tall and heavily armed and armored, they are the main heavy ground combat vehicles. A person who operates a BattleMech is known as a MechWarrior.

BattleMechs are what Starfleet Starships are to [[Star Trek]], [[Lightsaber]]s are to [[Star Wars]] and [[Space Marines]] are to [[Warhammer 40,000]]. They are the specific '''Battle'''field '''Tech'''nology that the setting is named for.
== History ==
The BattleMech is the end result of the Myomer technology's use by IndustrialMechs; the Terran Hegemony saw that on some backwater worlds and colonies that some desperate garrisons would use IndustrialMechs for back-line combat, and wanted to see if the technology was actually viable for long-term combat operations. The Hegemony placed Dr. Gregory Atlas, one of the finest scientists of the time, in charge of the project, as he and an army of Hegemony scientists worked to refine the tech for military purposes. The results of these top-secret projects came the tests of the ''[[Mackie]]'' of the 2439, which worked so well that the Hegemony almost immediately chose to put it into production, completely changing the face of warfare from that point on. The Hegemony, naturally, tried to keep this shit under wraps for quite some time, trying to amass as many of them as possible before finally getting the chance to use them against the [[Draconis Combine]] in 2443, completely devastating the Kurita forces save for one tank, who told the greater Inner Sphere community of this miraculous and terrifying new tech. Naturally, everyone and their grandma tried to get their hands on it, taking less than 12 years before the Lyran Commonwealth's daring raid on the planet of Hesperus II received the plans, and therefore the rest of the Inner Sphere began to make their own mechs for warfare, and the Age of War got some great use out of the new tech, which ironically was actually only a prelude to the real zenith of BattleMech development; the birth of the [[Star League]].

The Star League meant the end of the Great Houses playing grab-ass for power (at least, officially) and that all military technology was in the hands of a single monolithic power in relative peace and prosperity, and therefore development of the tech skyrocketed. The invention of Jump Jets, Gauss Rifles, the LAM mech, and myriad electronic and internal improvements, as well as a massive explosion of Mech variants meant that as humanity saw it's peak, so did the BattleMech, even if it only lasted a few hundred years. All of this however came to a grinding halt with the sudden slaying of First Lord John Nicholas II by Stefan Amaris and his [[Amaris Civil War]], where the SLDF had to use everything at it's disposal to gain vengeance for their fallen lord. This stagnation was further exacerbated by the SLDF largely fucking off to the Deep Periphery where nobody would see them again for almost 500 years, leading directly in to the Succession Wars.

The Succession Wars sent humanity on an increasing backslide of technological progress, and the BattleMech suffered dearly for it, to the point that whole classes of Mech almost went extinct due to the sheer level of cost, lack of resources, and plain old lost plans and factories that ultimately wiped scores of Mechs from battlefields across the Inner Sphere. This was only halted 28 years into the 31st century with an enterprising [[Free Worlds League|Free Worlder]]'s unbelievable discovery on the devastated world of Helm; the cave system that spanned much of the underground around the ruined world's old capital held an amazing discovery of a massive Star League-era cache of information stored deep underground that housed life-changing blueprints, schematics of mechs long thought to be rumor or museum pieces, exact material needs, and weapons that hadn't been seen in the Inner Sphere for decades. Naturally, [[ComStar]] tried to get their grubby paws on it all with the intention to destroy it, but the Mercenaries that'd been granted access to the world of Helm fought them off and aggressively disseminated copies of the information throughout the Inner Sphere in order to get back at ComStar for blaming them for war crimes. This set off a new renaissance of development of the technology.

And then the Clans showed up and changed everything with what they had been working on with all that time out in the boondocks.

== The utility of a BattleMech ==
An often asked question (usually by smartasses in the BattleTech general threads) is just how useful a Mech is in a universe that is harder science-fiction than say, [[Star Wars]] or [[40k]], given that they share a universe with Tanks, Hovertanks, AeroSpace Fighters, and Powered Armor. The Answer is largely in both the way wars are fought in BattleTech, and also in performance per C-Bill.

The BattleMech has many advantages that Tanks and Fighters simply can't match in open combat; while an AeroSpace Fighter can absolutely fly better and move faster than any Mech, it's expensive, more resource intensive to use in ground warfare, and is generally better served in upper atmosphere trying to tie up DropShips and Bombers and the like. The Tank is venerable, cheap, mounts a lot of the same guns as a Mech, and hasn't been completely replaced by them and probably never will be, but even with the advances in Fission technology, many tanks are still dependent on comparatively archaic fuel sources and design methods (such as structural weakpoints set towards the roof of the tank that suddenly became much less forgivable in a time of big stompy mechs), and ultimately a devotion to how nice the terrain plays that keep them limited to support or artillery roles. The BattleMech, any of them at all, might be expensive and a big target, but they don't have to worry that much about fueling, all of their armaments are usually far more numerous and pack a much more painful punch than anything else can safely carry, and they have the very useful ability to effectively negate most difficult terrain due to their sheer size, weight, and ability to move in a humanlike fashion, and if they happen to run into some they can't immediately pass through, a good majority of Mechs can simply use Jump Jets to get around them. Most can even get shot to pieces and still run if they manage to keep all the vital shit together, though the company the MechWarrior works for will probably be out a good amount of C-Bills and time for repairs.

And regarding the warfare, BattleTech's universe has a mutually agreed upon set of rules of warfare in the Inner Sphere and also from the Clans that typically ensures that something that can hit a target hard, fast, coordinate with other units, and then protect that position better than the other side could, often many at a time, is more valuable than just firepower or maneuverability. Tanks might be able to do that if you sent a ''bunch'' of them, and as cool as squadrons of Aerospace Fighters can be, neither are built to handle that kind of combat with clear ground objectives that they must take and then hold like a lance of four Mechs, usually all around the same size and with varied payload description, could do on their own. There is a ''reason'' everyone who didn't have the tech at the time wanted one; it saves money in the long run to cut the logistics of a whole company of soldiers and tanks' and fighters' firepower down into four giant robots and their pilots that can shrug off (or at least not be downed by) being shot with an artillery cannon.

Also it's the [[AWESOME|fucking tightest shit imaginable]], and if you seriously need to ask the question "why would someone want to pilot a giant robot" then I'm afraid this game just isn't for you.

== BattleMech Systems ==
{{topquote|Reactor online. Sensors online. Weapons online. All systems nominal.|A typical computer startup sequence in a BattleMech’s cockpit - hyping MechWarrior video gamers since 1989}}

Stemming from their origins from jury-rigged IndustrialMechs being armed for combat by rear line soldiers, BattleMechs share the same general components as their civilian brethren. What makes the former different from the latter is their chassis parts and sensors are generally bulkier, cheaper, and less resistant to combat damage. Additionally, the weapons and piloting mechanisms they carry aren't dedicated to combat and are either less powerful or less responsive. Some BattleMech subsystems are detailed further below.

=== Weaponry ===
* '''Lasers''': Basic directed energy weapon. They are fairly cheap, do fairly consistent damage and since they're powered by the mech's reactor they don't need ammo. That said while they do burn into your enemies' armor, they also generate waste heat.
**'''Small Laser''': Low power and low range, often used on light mechs or as "we got half a ton to spare, what the hell?" add ons to heavier ones.
**'''Medium Laser''': Your basic laser gun.
**'''Large Laser;''': Heavier, long range laser.
**'''Pulse Laser''': Can be small, medium or large. As opposed to a single blast, Pulse Lasers fire several successive times in order to increase damage, though the heat they generate is much higher on average than the normal variants.
* '''Autocannons''': Abbreviated as ''AC''. An enormous machine gun/cannon that fires explosive shells in short bursts. Autocannons have variable ammo caliber sizes and are mostly grouped into categories of default damage numbers. While they don't generate much heat and are often times much better at taking armor off a Mech, they're also dependent on their hard ranges of minimum distance, requiring a lot of maneuvering to make work, and of course they can only carry a limited amount of ammunition.
** '''Autocannon/2''' - The sniper rifle of Autocannons. While it's next to useless in a close-range firefight, it's good at taking potshots from a distance that even LRMs can't reach. Almost anything that has one usually loads up on special munitions to offset the loss of damage.
** '''Autocannon/5''' - Arguably the first Autocannon ever made, it does respectable but not especially impressive damage at longer ranges, and can open just the right armor type in a pinch.
** '''Autocannon/10''' - The gold standard of Autocannons simply due to it's sheer utility; it can do some real damage, has a reasonable range, but critically it also has no minimum range that the MechWarrior has to consider when using it. Most 'Mechs that have an Autocannon will almost certainly default to this or any variant of it.
** '''Autocannon/20''' - The short-range, big damage variant. Can only shoot about a few hundred yards out, but anything dumb enough to be in it's range is pretty much scrap if the Autocannon lands more than one hit.
* '''Particle Projector Cannons''': The other standard Energy weapon, but generally much spicier than any Laser. A massive Cannon that fires a concentrated stream of ions and protons at a target at such velocity and strength that the Mech it's attached to experiences a kickback from it. The Mech that gets hit can experience serious electrical damage from the volley, and as such they are prized parts of any Mech it's attached to; rivalling Autocannons in terms of overall usefulness. The Mech it's attached to has inhibitors to prevent the cannon from frying it's own circuits, but some mad lads play dangerously and pull that particular thing off in dire straits to see what happens when they let the PPC really cook. Comes in a similar range of sizes and utility similar their laser counterparts
* '''Missiles''': You know how these work; a big rocket full of boom comes straight down on your opponent's face. Most Mechs that have them have a dedicated platform designed to deliver the payload; from dedicated missile systems designed to be fired at short, medium, or long ranges aided by fire control systems, or simpler, fixed range missile launchers like the Arrow IV that are designed to even out the terrain of a particularly unlucky stretch of land. Very useful, but prone to jamming due to a reliance on computer tracking.
* '''Gauss Rifle''': A more technologically advanced alternative to the Autocannon among ballistic guns, a Gauss Cannon that has been standardized with powerful electromagnets to shoot a solid metal melon straight into and more often than not through opposing mechs. It generates almost no heat and is quite powerful, but is incredibly energy intensive and often enormous, requiring Mechs to almost be built around that weight limitation rather than the Rifle around the Mech's limitations.
* '''[[Flamer]]s''': They're in BattleTech too! You use them for almost the exact same purpose as you would in another wargame; melting infantry. This is much less useful in BattleTech however given that almost nobody uses full-on infantry anymore, but it can be helpful to raise the heat of a Mech to intolerable levels. The Capellans later invented a variant called Plasma (<s>no, not [[Plasma|that one]]</s>) which uses ionized & viscous foam bullets launched at infantry or light armor like modern white phosphorus or napalm.
* '''Machine Guns''': For killing squirrels. If you're in a mech primarily armed with these you're mostly just there to keep infantry or restless insurgents tied up, or, and I'm sorry to have to break it to you now, you're in the Mech that's expected to die. Machine guns can also be used in Anti Missile Systems like real life Active Protective Systems on modern tanks or Close In Weapon Systems on ships; blasting those pesky missiles out of the sky before they can mess up the paint job. They're also a component for Anti-Battle Armor modules to keep Clanner Elementals from tearing into your cockpit to shoot you in the face.
* '''Melee Weaponry''': While initially wildly impractical as an idea since a mech can carry giant guns and finish a fight against other Mechs without the use of a hand-to-hand weapon, the Succession Wars were such a resource drain that stuff like PPCs and even some variations of lasers couldn't be reliably manufactured and bolted to the giant robot, so mech-sized melee weapons found themselves making comebacks. As they do a point of damage per a certain amount of tonnage from the attacking mech and generate no heat, they can acquit themselves quite well if given to the right MechWarrior, but being in melee range for BattleMechs is generally not a good idea unless it was built/rebuilt from the ground up to brawl. Jump jets in particular are practically mandatory equipment for melee mechs.
** '''Punch''': Most Mechs in the game have some form of hand actuator, which means the most basic form of harm that a human can do is very much available to their giant metal toys. Games running Design Quirk rules can augment certain mechs with the "Battlefists" quirk, which gives further bonuses to hit on such an attack.
** '''Hatchet''': A giant meat cleaver pioneered by the Lyrans. Does a point of damage per every 5 tons of Mech. Given that the average mech in the Lyran Commonwealth is probably 70 tons or more, this makes it a much more dangerous thing than it initially sounds.
** '''Sword''': A standardized sword created as an alternative to the Lyran Hatchet by the Combine. It does a point of damage plus one for every Ten tons of Mech, but thanks to their exceptionally engineered balance, they're easier to hit with than a Hatchet.
** '''Claw''': A hand actuator of the Mech is replaced with a mechanical claw with hardened steel fingers filed to sharp points. Does a point of damager per every 7 tons of mech. Usually seen in the battle arenas of Solaris, it can be an inexpensive armor remover.
** '''Vibroblade''': The closest thing to a chainsword in BattleTech, Only available at the moment on Solaris. Comes in Small, Medium, or Large. Treated as a normal sword when not turned on, when activated it can do far more damage in a single strike than most other melee weapons, but it does generate quite a bit of waste heat as a result.
* '''Taser''': Yes, a taser. Another creation of the late Succession Wars and tested extensively on Solaris. It's a harpoon stuck to a cable that, when shot into a Mech, zaps the internal electronics so badly that the Mech stops entirely, allowing ground crews to take hostages and the Mech to be salvaged. While unquestionably very useful and potentially the smartest way to actually ''fight'' mech-to-mech, these things are mildly explosive, very close range, and require being targeted by eye.

=== Internal systems ===
* '''Myomer''': A synthetic musculature which contracts in on itself when an electrical current is run through it. It lays snug between the chassis skeleton and the armor on the Mech’s actuator limbs and attaches to the diagnostic interpretation computer (a series of processors and cables like nerve cables) to response to neurohelmet commands to the limb actuators and the gyro. Can be upgraded with other variant tech such as Triple Strength Myomer and Myomer Accelerator Signal Circuitry (called MASC) to boost either strength or speed at the risk of more frequent limb breakdowns. Apply 9-volt battery, kick foe in the 'nads.
* '''Engines''': Your standard BattleMech is powered by a hydrogen burning Fusion Reactor. Most vehicles used Internal Combustion Engines, or odder engines like Fuel Cells, and Fission Reactors. Yes, the rare Mech (typically an older model or an experimental one) actually used some of these too, but the Fusion Reactor was the default go-to here. Engines come in all shapes and sizes, though the easiest way to keep your Mech useful is to have an engine that doesn't take up too much valuable space.
* '''Gyros''': Not a sandwich beloved by greeks, but a spinny hunk of high-tech metal that helps the 'Mech stay upright. A close analogy is the series of reaction wheels used to keep real-life satellites, missiles, and torpedoes pointed steadily at their targets. Losing this means your 'Mech gets to lie down for an extended period of time, namely for the rest of the battle.
* '''Armor''': The yang to weaponry's yin. Depending on the tech level you're playing at, can come in flavours ranging from plain ol' vanilla Standard to double-fudge FerroFibrous, caramel Laser Reflective, stealth cloaked, and whatever demented flavour-of-the year that the New Avalon Institute of Science has come up with. Most Mech armor is ablative, meaning that it's designed to slough off when hit and requires swapping in fresh modules after the fight is done.
* '''Jump Jets''': Systems that make the 'Mech bounce along like little bunny Froo-froo. On 'Mechs, they're a fusion-rocket system, however vehicles and infantry sporting them usually use some sort of jet or chemical/liquid-rocket system. Weirder systems have been developed (think mechanical pogo-mounts). Yes, there is a Jump Jet equipped tank called the Kanga. When used in conjunction with reinforced legs in melee, MechWarriors can perform a [[Assault Squad|Death from above]] maneuver to crush any unfortunate S.O.B in their landing zone.
* '''Heat Sinks''': Glorified radiators, Heat Sinks are mechanisms which deal with built up heat, which Mechs can quickly accumulate in combat. Firing lasers, getting hit by flamers, using Jump Jets and so forth can all build up heat which can damage the machine's system and cook a Mech Warrior alive. Double Heat Sinks are more effective than vanilla heat sinks but were also [[LosTech]] up until the 32nd century. Due to waste heat, MechWarriors pilot their vehicles in either refrigerated suits or if those are not available (as the blueprints to make them are kept locked up by [[ComStar|Space AT&T]]) in their undies.
* '''Ammo Storage''': Because you gotta put your bullets and missiles somewhere on your mech before you shoot 'em. If your lucky, you got Cellular Ammunition Storage Equipment (CASE) on your mech, which significantly reduces the chances that it will be set off unintentionally during combat.
* '''Sensors:''' Alternatively called the Target Tracking System or Advanced Fire Control System, they're the eyes and ears that relay environmental and targeting data to a MechWarrior's cockpit; either in the form of neurohelmet VR feed or a cockpit display. Can be augmented from data from other units via the C3 Network, TAG beacons, or satellite feed.
* '''C3 Network:''' short for '''C'''ommand, '''C'''ontrol, and '''C'''ommunication. It's a simple tight-beam comms network that can share targeting data between Mechs. It starts with the Command unit that three slave units (or six 3Ci units, if you're lucky enough to have them) connect to, and then all data collected by any one of the units is automatically shared to the other three. While potent, ECMs wreak havoc on C3 systems, and any lance that has one can be blinded in certain conditions if you figure out where the Command unit is, which is almost always in the Heavy/Assault Mech due to the command unit's size.
* '''ECM Suites:''' Short for '''E'''lectronic '''C'''ounter-'''M'''easure, an ECM is an invaluable piece of hardware that can shut down sensors and communications tech. On the tabletop, it produces a bubble around the Mech that can shut down certain bits of hardware like active probes or C3 systems. They're only available in certain Mechs however, as the technology is extremely precise and the Succession Wars completely robbed the Inner Sphere of the ability to manufacture them.
* '''TAG:''' Short for '''T'''arget '''A'''cquisition '''G'''ear. Composed of a variable spectrum laser for target-marking and rang-finding, it's basically just [[markerlight]]s for Battletech, developed to overcome ECMs. Just expect to be extremely noticed (either as the targeted if you're unlucky to be painted by it or the targeter once every enemy detects your signal and rushed over to wreck your ride). Some alternative targeting gear includes sticky beacons fired by Scouts and missile fire control systems but those suffer from either shorter range or jamming.
* '''Harjel System:''' Using the fast-drying and tar-like substance called Harjel, the system sprays out a black goop that can harden to withstand the vacuum of space or pressures of underwater combat across a broken piece of armor. A little at a time is fine, but if the Mech receives massive damage all at once, the system will just start spraying it every where and whole parts of the Mech will become useless. Removing it is also a bitch, too.
* '''Neurohelmets''': At base, Neurohelmets allow the 'Mech to borrow the pilot's sense of balance (due to the organic ear and spatial orientation system of a human surpassing any robotic control loop that can be coded). More advanced systems (generally [[LosTech]] or ClannerScum) could provide a VR simspace for the pilot and shunt sensor feeds right into the pilot's brain. Also serves as a security system, as they're keyed to the pilot's brainwaves and can fry any pesky intruders’ brains if they don’t bypass the ID validation system. If pilots are not careful and push their Mechs beyond their normal performance, they could suffer neural backlash. Some systems experiment with embedded circuits or neural interfaces inside pilot’s bodies like some Clannner's Enhanced Imaging system or Wobbie cyborg's Vehicular Direct Neural Interface but such tech leaves pilots with a very short lifespans.
* '''Cockpit''': typically mounted in the head of a BattleMech beside some [[Solaris VII]] arena ‘Mechs mounting it in the torso, they contain the basic controls, targeting displays, computer interface, toilet, microwave, and life support systems for a MechWarrior. On the other hand, MechWarriors still need to keep an eye on the thermometer to avoid suffering a heat stroke from the reactor heat. More advance versions can include a Dual Cockpit/Command Console for multiple crew or replaces the basic ejector seat with a sealed Full Head Ejector System capsule to protect pilots from shrapnel or hostile environments when they need to bail away from their Mech before it’s reactor explodes.

== Types of BattleMechs ==
There are several ways to sort out each model from its contemporaries as shown below.

=== Weight Class ===
The most common classification of BattleMechs in-universe is by weight. How it's actually calculated is up in the air, as it doesn't appear to take into account the complete weight of the vehicle (since many Mechs have almost 10-20% of their tonnage taken up by armor), but it's generally agreed upon that this is the optimal "weight" of a fully kitted out BattleMech.

* '''Ultralight Mechs''': Any Mech under 20 tonnes. Mostly used to man garrisons and patrol colonies out in the boondocks for law enforcement and piracy deterrence, they’re basically an aluminum box on legs with some machine guns or grenade launchers wired to a joystick. Depending on your luck, they might be the fastest thing you have or the worst purchase you ever made. Marginally better than a regular armored vehicle for direct fighting, the difference between one of these and an IndustrialMech strapped with ordinance is very, ''very'' difficult to parse.
* '''Light Mechs''': Mechs between 20 and 35 Tonnes. They are normally cheap, easy to deploy, fast and lightly armored and are used for Scouting, Raiding, or in some cases urban defense. In-universe they are usually the most common type of BattleMech known.
* '''Medium Mechs''': Mechs between 40 and 55 Tonnes. Able to throw down better than a Light Mech while being faster and cheaper than a heavy. Also includes specialized support units. Mostly used for tactical needs on paper, but tend to be wildly flexible in practice. Many of the more useful and iconic mechs in the series are in this category if they aren't Heavy Mechs.
* '''Heavy Mechs''': Mechs between 60 and 75 Tonnes. The workhorses of most armies, affordable heavy power while still being able to move faster than a truck heaving forward. Several of the most iconic mechs in the series are in this class.
* '''Assault Mechs''': Mechs between 80 to 100 Tonnes. The heavy hitters; ponderous and pricey but durable with heavy weapons and armor to both take and dispense a serious beatdown. Just what the doctor ordered for the tip of your spear. Unless you get a [[Banshee (BattleTech)|BNS-1S]]. Then people mock you.
* '''Super Heavy Mechs''': Also called Colossal, they’re any Mech that is more than 100 Tonnes. Up until the 31st century, the general consensus was that Mechs more than 100 Tonnes were basically laughably bad penis compensators. After the [[Clan Invasion]] people are beginning to make them work, but logistics keep them towards being niche.

=== Combat Role ===
In terms of combat utility, BattleMechs can be split into certain categories based on their specifications. While some roles may be filled with conventional armored vehicles, they take either a higher weight class or a larger motor pool to compensate.

* '''Scout''': The fastest of the lot but mounting light armaments while armored with tinfoil. These speedsters rely on agility and small size to scoot from place to place before gathering intel from their sensors on the enemy to radio back to their bigger partners. They also like to shoot at the weak spots of any enemy unit they can outflank before running away to avoid being scrapped by returning fire.
* '''Striker''': Second only to scouts in a race while sporting a short ranged arsenal and decent armor. These jocks are meant to run up to enemy units and let loose with all the firepower they can get into range. They work best while charging in a swarm with covering fire from other units as well as terrain that can conceal their approach until they can get the jump on an enemy.
* '''Skirmisher''': Fast moving while outfitted with medium ranged weapons and reasonable armor. They’re generalists who can be flexible jacks-of-all-trades. Often times, they partner with other combat roles for both ends to compensate for each other's short comings. They can also be used for running battles where a scout's paper-thin armor is too light to survive but need fire support from snipers or missile boats during sieges to avoid being turned into swiss cheese by other units with a heavier arsenal.
* '''Brawler''': On the slower range of mobility while kitted with medium-to-long ranged weapons and heavy armor. These guys are the main component of an attack wave. While they're not good at long duration fights and running battles, they serve well as escort units for Juggernauts, as either defensive guards or offensive breachers during sieges, and can flush out hidden units out of their hidey-holes.
* '''Missile Boat''': Sitting back from the front lines, these units seek to provide indirect fire in the form of missiles or artillery shells while hiding behind cover. Compared to snipers, they do not need to have a direct line-of-site on their targets but are more dependent on targeting data from scouts.
* '''Sniper''': Similar to the missile boat but with a long ranged weapon that requires direct line-of-sight, these guys are slower than skirmishers or strikers but their platform stability allows them to take pot-shots at other units reliably. While escorts with short-ranged weapons can make up for their lack of perimeter defense or melee capability, they're best used while hidden away from plain view.
* '''Juggernaut''': The slowest of the pack but possessing powerful short-ranged weapons with thick slabs of armor, these mobile fortresses rely in pure inertia to keep the ball moving forward and can work in unison with other unit classes to get in range of distracted enemy units or fortifications before using their arsenal to delete any target from the field.

=== Other ===
Beyond weight and combat specialty, there are a few other specialized types of BattleMech, each with their own strengths and drawbacks.

* '''Bipedal''': A mech with two legs, most common type; broken down into three separate subcategories such as '''Humanoid''', '''Reverse Joint''', and '''Digitigrade''', however performance between the three is negligible as all three have both standout variants and regrettable variants alike.
*'''Tripodal''': An experimental three-legged variant that's only rarely been used, even when the design idea gained traction in the 32nd century, only four mechs in the entire canon have ever used this variant. What does make them stand out though is their ability to constantly move in any direction without braking and their proven ability to be built as Super-Heavy tonnage.
*'''Quadropedal''': A mech which has four legs instead of two. They have something of a bad reputation for allegedly requiring more crew and less armor, but on the other hand can loose a leg and still be in the fight. Are far less common than Bipedal Mechs, but are still fairly common as mobile fire-boats. Another transformable variant is "Quadvees" among Clan Hell's Horses that can change back and forth into tanks. While they can still fight if the gyro is damaged in tank form, the extra limbs and servos for transforming gives them the same weaknesses of being stuck in one mode after being damaged as their LAM relatives.
*'''SecurityMech''': Sometimes referred to as MilitiaMechs, PoliceMechs, or (if they’re field-modified off existing IndustrialMech chassis) MOD’s, these are basically up-armored and armed IndustrialMechs. Often used for internal policing, quelling riots, fending off giant wildlife, and anti-piracy deterrence, they're usually used for guarding critical infrastructure or facilities that are far from the front lines. Due to their less robust construction, lighter weapon load-out, and less energy intensive engine, they're marginally better than combat vehicles for front line combat. On the other hand, they’re cheap enough that any backwater planet can buy them if atmospheric aircraft and tank use for security isn’t enough and they’re good enough for preventing covert sabotage, banditry, and insurgent activity. Like mainstream BattleMechs, they have their own weight classes: Light (10-15 tons), Medium (20-25 tons), Heavy (30-35 tons), and Assault (40-50 tons).
*'''FrankenMech''': more formally called HybridMechs, they're basically any [[Looted|ad hoc]] and [[Mekboy|non-standardized]] Mech created by cobbling together any spare parts from a dozen other BattleMechs that a mad engineer or desperate pirate can scrounge from their basement without any corporate support or standardized template. Deep in the Periphery, they're also called Corsairs.
*'''[[Robotech|Land Air Mech]]''': sometimes called LAM's. Basically a light mech that can transform from an Aerospace Fighter into a regular mech. They got invented during the Star League and were experimental reconnaissance units but got phased out due to being more fragile than regular fighters and mechs. Out of universe, Battletech developers decided it was too much effort to keep without lawsuits from Harmony Gold (as seen with the infamous "Unseen/Reseen" mech artwork from other IP's).
*'''[[OmniMech]]''': the Lego/Swiss army knive variant of a regular Mech. Can change their loadouts as quickly as diapers' and carry [[Clan Elemental|armored infantry]] but are way more expensive.
*'''ProtoMech''': spanning the gap between Battle Armor that maxes out at 2 metric tonnes and UltraLight BattleMechs below 20 tonnes, ProtoMechs were created by Clan Smoke Jaguar to make the most out of their shrinking resource base after the Second Star League drove them out of the Inner Sphere. While the Clan ultimately died out in the end at the Great Refusal, the ProtoMech Concept remained in use by the Clans for some time. Instead of using a traditional cockpit, a embedded circuitry system grafted under the skin of the pilot (used by some Clan Warriors for traditional Mechs) enabled pilots to use a ProtoMechs’ limbs like their own in a fancy version of augmented reality hooked to mechanical limbs. Additionally, the smaller size and direct interface with a pilot's senses removed the need for a bulky gyro . However, such interfaces still shortened users’ lives and made them feel the loss of limbs as painfully as if it were their own being sheared off. Naturally, outside the Blakists incorporating the interface tech into their Manei Domini cyborgs, no Inner Sphere faction tried to reverse engineer them due to technical issues and ethical concerns. Thus, they remain an obscure niche within some Clans.

== Notable BattleMechs ==
Over the span of seven centuries there has been like a bajillion different makes and models of Battlemechs, most of which have at least a couple variants ranging from swapping out one brand of armor for another to rebuilds which put it into another weight class and combat role. As BattleMechs can last for centuries and are rather resilient things that can more often than not be at least partially salvaged after their pilot has been removed, there are still plenty of vintage units out and kicking. For a comprehensive list, go to [https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page Sarna]. Never the less, here's some notable mechs.

==== Ultralight ====
* Flea - the lovechild of a [[All Terrain Soup|AT-ST]] and a [[Sentinel]] walker. Good speed and sensors but avoid being shot.
* Celerity - Created by Comstar, it's one of the first drone Mechs. Resembles some quadrupedal drones in the real world.
* Road Runner - Called the Emerald Harrier by its Jade Falcon creators, it has the dubious distinction of being sold to the Republic of the Sphere by the Sea Foxes as a nifty scout.
* Prey Seeker - One of the fastest Spheroid Mechs, it was created by the Feds for raiding during the Dark Age.

==== Light ====
*[[UrbanMech]] - The little mech that could!
*[[Hollander]] - Mech with a big gun, or big gun with legs? You decide!
* Locust - Totally not stolen from Crusher Joe.
* Wasp - ...or Macross
* Stinger - Really. Believe us.

==== Medium ====
* [[Shadow Hawk]] - Or any anime inspired by Suns, Fangs, or Dougrams of such.
* Hunchback - The original "My, what a big gun" mech.
* Griffin - And back to IP infringement accusations.
* [[Phoenix Hawk]] - Max wants his plane back.

==== Heavy ====
*[[Timber Wolf]] - The bastard lovechild that everyone loves.
*[[Catapult]] - Proud parent of furry children.
* Marauder - Proud parent of furry children, deported for being an illegal alien from another IP. Than bought back after a redesign to avoid lawsuits.
* Rifleman - Proud uncle of furry children. Was also deported for shooting other illegal aliens despite being an illegal IP alien as well.

==== Assault ====
*[[Atlas]] - Big Death! Big Death! Big Death!
* King Crab - Preferred tool for cracking thick shells.
* [[Mackie]] - The Original!(tm) Accept no substitutes!
* [[Banshee (BattleTech)|Banshee]] - The Bradley of the Mech world. Big, fast, lightly armoured, and questionably armed.

==== Super Heavy ====
* Matar - Amaris [[Nazi Equipment|Wunderwaffen]] gambit. [[Fail|Cripple]] due to lack of good legs.
* Omega - Superheavy attempt 2, [[Word of Blake|Wobbie]] boogaloo. First successful prototype no thanks to pillaged ClanTech.
* Poseidon - “War of the Worlds” Tripod meets copious amounts of armor and dakka. 3 man crew required.
* Ares - OmniMech Version of Tripod above. Plug and play configuration modules as needed.

[[Category:BattleTech]]

BattleMech

2022-08-16T15:46:49Z

2600:1016:B101:F6F8:259A:D114:4B5:4040: Undo revision 795319 by 2607:FB90:6E62:E98F:D189:4E2D:D348:AF48 (talk)

'''BattleMechs''' are [[Mecha|legged armored fighting vehicles]] in the [[BattleTech]] Universe. Standing between 8 and 14 meters tall and heavily armed and armored, they are the main heavy ground combat vehicles. A person who operates a BattleMech is known as a MechWarrior.

BattleMechs are what Starfleet Starships are to [[Star Trek]], [[Lightsaber]]s are to [[Star Wars]] and [[Space Marines]] are to [[Warhammer 40,000]]. They are the specific '''Battle'''field '''Tech'''nology that the setting is named for.
== History ==
The BattleMech is the end result of the Myomer technology's use by IndustrialMechs; the Terran Hegemony saw that on some backwater worlds and colonies that some desperate garrisons would use IndustrialMechs for back-line combat, and wanted to see if the technology was actually viable for long-term combat operations. The Hegemony placed Dr. Gregory Atlas, one of the finest scientists of the time, in charge of the project, as he and an army of Hegemony scientists worked to refine the tech for military purposes. The results of these top-secret projects came the tests of the ''[[Mackie]]'' of the 2439, which worked so well that the Hegemony almost immediately chose to put it into production, completely changing the face of warfare from that point on. The Hegemony, naturally, tried to keep this shit under wraps for quite some time, trying to amass as many of them as possible before finally getting the chance to use them against the [[Draconis Combine]] in 2443, completely devastating the Kurita forces save for one tank, who told the greater Inner Sphere community of this miraculous and terrifying new tech. Naturally, everyone and their grandma tried to get their hands on it, taking less than 12 years before the Lyran Commonwealth's daring raid on the planet of Hesperus II received the plans, and therefore the rest of the Inner Sphere began to make their own mechs for warfare, and the Age of War got some great use out of the new tech, which ironically was actually only a prelude to the real zenith of BattleMech development; the birth of the [[Star League]].

The Star League meant the end of the Great Houses playing grab-ass for power (at least, officially) and that all military technology was in the hands of a single monolithic power in relative peace and prosperity, and therefore development of the tech skyrocketed. The invention of Jump Jets, Gauss Rifles, the LAM mech, and myriad electronic and internal improvements, as well as a massive explosion of Mech variants meant that as humanity saw it's peak, so did the BattleMech, even if it only lasted a few hundred years. All of this however came to a grinding halt with the sudden slaying of First Lord John Nicholas II by Stefan Amaris and his [[Amaris Civil War]], where the SLDF had to use everything at it's disposal to gain vengeance for their fallen lord. This stagnation was further exacerbated by the SLDF largely fucking off to the Deep Periphery where nobody would see them again for almost 500 years, leading directly in to the Succession Wars.

The Succession Wars sent humanity on an increasing backslide of technological progress, and the BattleMech suffered dearly for it, to the point that whole classes of Mech almost went extinct due to the sheer level of cost, lack of resources, and plain old lost plans and factories that ultimately wiped scores of Mechs from battlefields across the Inner Sphere. This was only halted 28 years into the 31st century with an enterprising [[Free Worlds League|Free Worlder]]'s unbelievable discovery on the devastated world of Helm; the cave system that spanned much of the underground around the ruined world's old capital held an amazing discovery of a massive Star League-era cache of information stored deep underground that housed life-changing blueprints, schematics of mechs long thought to be rumor or museum pieces, exact material needs, and weapons that hadn't been seen in the Inner Sphere for decades. Naturally, [[ComStar]] tried to get their grubby paws on it all with the intention to destroy it, but the Mercenaries that'd been granted access to the world of Helm fought them off and aggressively disseminated copies of the information throughout the Inner Sphere in order to get back at ComStar for blaming them for war crimes. This set off a new renaissance of development of the technology.

And then the Clans showed up and changed everything with what they had been working on with all that time out in the boondocks.

== The utility of a BattleMech ==
An often asked question (usually by smartasses in the BattleTech general threads) is just how useful a Mech is in a universe that is harder science-fiction than say, [[Star Wars]] or [[40k]], given that they share a universe with Tanks, Hovertanks, AeroSpace Fighters, and Powered Armor. The Answer is largely in both the way wars are fought in BattleTech, and also in performance per C-Bill.

The BattleMech has many advantages that Tanks and Fighters simply can't match in open combat; while an AeroSpace Fighter can absolutely fly better and move faster than any Mech, it's expensive, more resource intensive to use in ground warfare, and is generally better served in upper atmosphere trying to tie up DropShips and Bombers and the like. The Tank is venerable, cheap, mounts a lot of the same guns as a Mech, and hasn't been completely replaced by them and probably never will be, but even with the advances in Fission technology, many tanks are still dependent on comparatively archaic fuel sources and design methods (such as structural weakpoints set towards the roof of the tank that suddenly became much less forgivable in a time of big stompy mechs), and ultimately a devotion to how nice the terrain plays that keep them limited to support or artillery roles. The BattleMech, any of them at all, might be expensive and a big target, but they don't have to worry that much about fueling, all of their armaments are usually far more numerous and pack a much more painful punch than anything else can safely carry, and they have the very useful ability to effectively negate most difficult terrain due to their sheer size, weight, and ability to move in a humanlike fashion, and if they happen to run into some they can't immediately pass through, a good majority of Mechs can simply use Jump Jets to get around them. Most can even get shot to pieces and still run if they manage to keep all the vital shit together, though the company the MechWarrior works for will probably be out a good amount of C-Bills and time for repairs.

And regarding the warfare, BattleTech's universe has a mutually agreed upon set of rules of warfare in the Inner Sphere and also from the Clans that typically ensures that something that can hit a target hard, fast, coordinate with other units, and then protect that position better than the other side could, often many at a time, is more valuable than just firepower or maneuverability. Tanks might be able to do that if you sent a ''bunch'' of them, and as cool as squadrons of Aerospace Fighters can be, neither are built to handle that kind of combat with clear ground objectives that they must take and then hold like a lance of four Mechs, usually all around the same size and with varied payload description, could do on their own. There is a ''reason'' everyone who didn't have the tech at the time wanted one; it saves money in the long run to cut the logistics of a whole company of soldiers and tanks' and fighters' firepower down into four giant robots and their pilots that can shrug off (or at least not be downed by) being shot with an artillery cannon.

Also it's the [[AWESOME|fucking tightest shit imaginable]], and if you seriously need to ask the question "why would someone want to pilot a giant robot" then I'm afraid this game just isn't for you.

== BattleMech Systems ==
{{topquote|Reactor online. Sensors online. Weapons online. All systems nominal.|A typical computer startup sequence in a BattleMech’s cockpit - hyping MechWarrior video gamers since 1989}}

Stemming from their origins from jury-rigged IndustrialMechs being armed for combat by rear line soldiers, BattleMechs share the same general components as their civilian brethren. What makes the former different from the latter is their chassis parts and sensors are generally bulkier, cheaper, and less resistant to combat damage. Additionally, the weapons and piloting mechanisms they carry aren't dedicated to combat and are either less powerful or less responsive. Some BattleMech subsystems are detailed further below.

=== Weaponry ===
* '''Lasers''': Basic directed energy weapon. They are fairly cheap, do fairly consistent damage and since they're powered by the mech's reactor they don't need ammo. That said while they do burn into your enemies' armor, they also generate waste heat.
**'''Small Laser''': Low power and low range, often used on light mechs or as "we got half a ton to spare, what the hell?" add ons to heavier ones.
**'''Medium Laser''': Your basic laser gun.
**'''Large Laser;''': Heavier, long range laser.
**'''Pulse Laser''': Can be small, medium or large. As opposed to a single blast, Pulse Lasers fire several successive times in order to increase damage, though the heat they generate is much higher on average than the normal variants.
* '''Autocannons''': Abbreviated as ''AC''. An enormous machine gun/cannon that fires explosive shells in short bursts. Autocannons have variable ammo caliber sizes and are mostly grouped into categories of default damage numbers. While they don't generate much heat and are often times much better at taking armor off a Mech, they're also dependent on their hard ranges of minimum distance, requiring a lot of maneuvering to make work, and of course they can only carry a limited amount of ammunition.
** '''Autocannon/2''' - The sniper rifle of Autocannons. While it's next to useless in a close-range firefight, it's good at taking potshots from a distance that even LRMs can't reach. Almost anything that has one usually loads up on special munitions to offset the loss of damage.
** '''Autocannon/5''' - Arguably the first Autocannon ever made, it does respectable but not especially impressive damage at longer ranges, and can open just the right armor type in a pinch.
** '''Autocannon/10''' - The gold standard of Autocannons simply due to it's sheer utility; it can do some real damage, has a reasonable range, but critically it also has no minimum range that the MechWarrior has to consider when using it. Most 'Mechs that have an Autocannon will almost certainly default to this or any variant of it.
** '''Autocannon/20''' - The short-range, big damage variant. Can only shoot about a few hundred yards out, but anything dumb enough to be in it's range is pretty much scrap if the Autocannon lands more than one hit.
* '''Particle Projector Cannons''': The other standard Energy weapon, but generally much spicier than any Laser. A massive Cannon that fires a concentrated stream of ions and protons at a target at such velocity and strength that the Mech it's attached to experiences a kickback from it. The Mech that gets hit can experience serious electrical damage from the volley, and as such they are prized parts of any Mech it's attached to; rivalling Autocannons in terms of overall usefulness. The Mech it's attached to has inhibitors to prevent the cannon from frying it's own circuits, but some mad lads play dangerously and pull that particular thing off in dire straits to see what happens when they let the PPC really cook. Comes in a similar range of sizes and utility similar their laser counterparts
* '''Missiles''': You know how these work; a big rocket full of boom comes straight down on your opponent's face. Most Mechs that have them have a dedicated platform designed to deliver the payload; from dedicated missile systems designed to be fired at short, medium, or long ranges aided by fire control systems, or simpler, fixed range missile launchers like the Arrow IV that are designed to even out the terrain of a particularly unlucky stretch of land. Very useful, but prone to jamming due to a reliance on computer tracking.
* '''Gauss Rifle''': A more technologically advanced alternative to the Autocannon among ballistic guns, a Gauss Cannon that has been standardized with powerful electromagnets to shoot a solid metal melon straight into and more often than not through opposing mechs. It generates almost no heat and is quite powerful, but is incredibly energy intensive and often enormous, requiring Mechs to almost be built around that weight limitation rather than the Rifle around the Mech's limitations.
* '''[[Flamer]]s''': They're in BattleTech too! You use them for almost the exact same purpose as you would in another wargame; melting infantry. This is much less useful in BattleTech however given that almost nobody uses full-on infantry anymore, but it can be helpful to raise the heat of a Mech to intolerable levels. The Capellans later invented a variant called Plasma (<s>no, not [[Plasma|that one]]</s>) which uses ionized & viscous foam bullets launched at infantry or light armor like modern white phosphorus or napalm.
* '''Machine Guns''': For killing squirrels. If you're in a mech primarily armed with these you're mostly just there to keep infantry or restless insurgents tied up, or, and I'm sorry to have to break it to you now, you're in the Mech that's expected to die. Machine guns can also be used in Anti Missile Systems like real life Active Protective Systems on modern tanks or Close In Weapon Systems on ships; blasting those pesky missiles out of the sky before they can mess up the paint job. They're also a component for Anti-Battle Armor modules to keep Clanner Elementals from tearing into your cockpit to shoot you in the face.
* '''Melee Weaponry''': While initially wildly impractical as an idea since a mech can carry giant guns and finish a fight against other Mechs without the use of a hand-to-hand weapon, the Succession Wars were such a resource drain that stuff like PPCs and even some variations of lasers couldn't be reliably manufactured and bolted to the giant robot, so mech-sized melee weapons found themselves making comebacks. As they do a point of damage per a certain amount of tonnage from the attacking mech and generate no heat, they can acquit themselves quite well if given to the right MechWarrior, but being in melee range for BattleMechs is generally not a good idea unless it was built/rebuilt from the ground up to brawl. Jump jets in particular are practically mandatory equipment for melee mechs.
** '''Punch''': Most Mechs in the game have some form of hand actuator, which means the most basic form of harm that a human can do is very much available to their giant metal toys. Games running Design Quirk rules can augment certain mechs with the "Battlefists" quirk, which gives further bonuses to hit on such an attack.
** '''Hatchet''': A giant meat cleaver pioneered by the Lyrans. Does a point of damage per every 5 tons of Mech. Given that the average mech in the Lyran Commonwealth is probably 70 tons or more, this makes it a much more dangerous thing than it initially sounds.
** '''Sword''': A standardized sword created as an alternative to the Lyran Hatchet by the Combine. It does a point of damage plus one for every Ten tons of Mech, but thanks to their exceptionally engineered balance, they're easier to hit with than a Hatchet.
** '''Claw''': A hand actuator of the Mech is replaced with a mechanical claw with hardened steel fingers filed to sharp points. Does a point of damager per every 7 tons of mech. Usually seen in the battle arenas of Solaris, it can be an inexpensive armor remover.
** '''Vibroblade''': The closest thing to a chainsword in BattleTech, Only available at the moment on Solaris. Comes in Small, Medium, or Large. Treated as a normal sword when not turned on, when activated it can do far more damage in a single strike than most other melee weapons, but it does generate quite a bit of waste heat as a result.
* '''Taser''': Yes, a taser. Another creation of the late Succession Wars and tested extensively on Solaris. It's a harpoon stuck to a cable that, when shot into a Mech, zaps the internal electronics so badly that the Mech stops entirely, allowing ground crews to take hostages and the Mech to be salvaged. While unquestionably very useful and potentially the smartest way to actually ''fight'' mech-to-mech, these things are mildly explosive, very close range, and require being targeted by eye.

=== Internal systems ===
* '''Myomer''': A synthetic musculature which contracts in on itself when an electrical current is run through it. It lays snug between the chassis skeleton and the armor on the Mech’s actuator limbs and attaches to the diagnostic interpretation computer (a series of processors and cables like nerve cables) to response to neurohelmet commands to the limb actuators and the gyro. Can be upgraded with other variant tech such as Triple Strength Myomer and Myomer Accelerator Signal Circuitry (called MASC) to boost either strength or speed at the risk of more frequent limb breakdowns. Apply 9-volt battery, kick foe in the 'nads.
* '''Engines''': Your standard BattleMech is powered by a hydrogen burning Fusion Reactor. Most vehicles used Internal Combustion Engines, or odder engines like Fuel Cells, and Fission Reactors. Yes, the rare Mech (typically an older model or an experimental one) actually used some of these too, but the Fusion Reactor was the default go-to here. Engines come in all shapes and sizes, though the easiest way to keep your Mech useful is to have an engine that doesn't take up too much valuable space.
* '''Gyros''': Not a sandwich beloved by greeks, but a spinny hunk of high-tech metal that helps the 'Mech stay upright. A close analogy is the series of reaction wheels used to keep real-life satellites, missiles, and torpedoes pointed steadily at their targets. Losing this means your 'Mech gets to lie down for an extended period of time, namely for the rest of the battle.
* '''Armor''': The yang to weaponry's yin. Depending on the tech level you're playing at, can come in flavours ranging from plain ol' vanilla Standard to double-fudge FerroFibrous, caramel Laser Reflective, stealth cloaked, and whatever demented flavour-of-the year that the New Avalon Institute of Science has come up with. Most Mech armor is ablative, meaning that it's designed to slough off when hit and requires swapping in fresh modules after the fight is done.
* '''Jump Jets''': Systems that make the 'Mech bounce along like little bunny Froo-froo. On 'Mechs, they're a fusion-rocket system, however vehicles and infantry sporting them usually use some sort of jet or chemical/liquid-rocket system. Weirder systems have been developed (think mechanical pogo-mounts). Yes, there is a Jump Jet equipped tank called the Kanga. When used in conjunction with reinforced legs in melee, MechWarriors can perform a [[Assault Squad|Death from above]] maneuver to crush any unfortunate S.O.B in their landing zone.
* '''Heat Sinks''': Glorified radiators, Heat Sinks are mechanisms which deal with built up heat, which Mechs can quickly accumulate in combat. Firing lasers, getting hit by flamers, using Jump Jets and so forth can all build up heat which can damage the machine's system and cook a Mech Warrior alive. Double Heat Sinks are more effective than vanilla heat sinks but were also [[LosTech]] up until the 32nd century. Due to waste heat, MechWarriors pilot their vehicles in either refrigerated suits or if those are not available (as the blueprints to make them are kept locked up by [[ComStar|Space AT&T]]) in their undies.
* '''Ammo Storage''': Because you gotta put your bullets and missiles somewhere on your mech before you shoot 'em. If your lucky, you got Cellular Ammunition Storage Equipment (CASE) on your mech, which significantly reduces the chances that it will be set off unintentionally during combat.
* '''Sensors:''' Alternatively called the Target Tracking System or Advanced Fire Control System, they're the eyes and ears that relay environmental and targeting data to a MechWarrior's cockpit; either in the form of neurohelmet VR feed or a cockpit display. Can be augmented from data from other units via the C3 Network, TAG beacons, or satellite feed.
* '''C3 Network:''' short for '''C'''ommand, '''C'''ontrol, and '''C'''ommunication. It's a simple tight-beam comms network that can share targeting data between Mechs. It starts with the Command unit that three slave units (or six 3Ci units, if you're lucky enough to have them) connect to, and then all data collected by any one of the units is automatically shared to the other three. While potent, ECMs wreak havoc on C3 systems, and any lance that has one can be blinded in certain conditions if you figure out where the Command unit is, which is almost always in the Heavy/Assault Mech due to the command unit's size.
* '''ECM Suites:''' Short for '''E'''lectronic '''C'''ounter-'''M'''easure, an ECM is an invaluable piece of hardware that can shut down sensors and communications tech. On the tabletop, it produces a bubble around the Mech that can shut down certain bits of hardware like active probes or C3 systems. They're only available in certain Mechs however, as the technology is extremely precise and the Succession Wars completely robbed the Inner Sphere of the ability to manufacture them.
* '''TAG:''' Short for '''T'''arget '''A'''cquisition '''G'''ear. Composed of a variable spectrum laser for target-marking and rang-finding, it's basically just [[markerlight]]s for Battletech, developed to overcome ECMs. Just expect to be extremely noticed (either as the targeted if you're unlucky to be painted by it or the targeter once every enemy detects your signal and rushed over to wreck your ride). Some alternative targeting gear includes sticky beacons fired by Scouts and missile fire control systems but those suffer from either shorter range or jamming.
* '''Harjel System:''' Using the fast-drying and tar-like substance called Harjel, the system sprays out a black goop that can harden to withstand the vacuum of space or pressures of underwater combat across a broken piece of armor. A little at a time is fine, but if the Mech receives massive damage all at once, the system will just start spraying it every where and whole parts of the Mech will become useless. Removing it is also a bitch, too.
* '''Neurohelmets''': At base, Neurohelmets allow the 'Mech to borrow the pilot's sense of balance (due to the organic ear and spatial orientation system of a human surpassing any robotic control loop that can be coded). More advanced systems (generally [[LosTech]] or ClannerScum) could provide a VR simspace for the pilot and shunt sensor feeds right into the pilot's brain. Also serves as a security system, as they're keyed to the pilot's brainwaves and can fry any pesky intruders’ brains if they don’t bypass the ID validation system. If pilots are not careful and push their Mechs beyond their normal performance, they could suffer neural backlash. Some systems experiment with embedded circuits or neural interfaces inside pilot’s bodies like some Clannner's Enhanced Imaging system or Wobbie cyborg's Vehicular Direct Neural Interface but such tech leaves pilots with a very short lifespans.
* '''Cockpit''': typically mounted in the head of a BattleMech beside some [[Solaris VII]] arena ‘Mechs mounting it in the torso, they contain the basic controls, targeting displays, computer interface, toilet, microwave, and life support systems for a MechWarrior. On the other hand, MechWarriors still need to keep an eye on the thermometer to avoid suffering a heat stroke from the reactor heat. More advance versions can include a Dual Cockpit/Command Console for multiple crew or replaces the basic ejector seat with a sealed Full Head Ejector System capsule to protect pilots from shrapnel or hostile environments when they need to bail away from their Mech before it’s reactor explodes.

== Types of BattleMechs ==
There are several ways to sort out each model from its contemporaries as shown below.

=== Weight Class ===
The most common classification of BattleMechs in-universe is by weight. How it's actually calculated is up in the air, as it doesn't appear to take into account the complete weight of the vehicle (since many Mechs have almost 10-20% of their tonnage taken up by armor), but it's generally agreed upon that this is the optimal "weight" of a fully kitted out BattleMech.

* '''Ultralight Mechs''': Any Mech under 20 tonnes. Mostly used to man garrisons and patrol colonies out in the boondocks for law enforcement and piracy deterrence, they’re basically an aluminum box on legs with some machine guns or grenade launchers wired to a joystick. Depending on your luck, they might be the fastest thing you have or the worst purchase you ever made. Marginally better than a regular armored vehicle for direct fighting, the difference between one of these and an IndustrialMech strapped with ordinance is very, ''very'' difficult to parse.
* '''Light Mechs''': Mechs between 20 and 35 Tonnes. They are normally cheap, easy to deploy, fast and lightly armored and are used for Scouting, Raiding, or in some cases urban defense. In-universe they are usually the most common type of BattleMech known.
* '''Medium Mechs''': Mechs between 40 and 55 Tonnes. Able to throw down better than a Light Mech while being faster and cheaper than a heavy. Also includes specialized support units. Mostly used for tactical needs on paper, but tend to be wildly flexible in practice. Many of the more useful and iconic mechs in the series are in this category if they aren't Heavy Mechs.
* '''Heavy Mechs''': Mechs between 60 and 75 Tonnes. The workhorses of most armies, affordable heavy power while still being able to move faster than a truck heaving forward. Several of the most iconic mechs in the series are in this class.
* '''Assault Mechs''': Mechs between 80 to 100 Tonnes. The heavy hitters; ponderous and pricey but durable with heavy weapons and armor to both take and dispense a serious beatdown. Just what the doctor ordered for the tip of your spear. Unless you get a [[Banshee (BattleTech)|BNS-1S]]. Then people mock you.
* '''Super Heavy Mechs''': Also called Colossal, they’re any Mech that is more than 100 Tonnes. Up until the 31st century, the general consensus was that Mechs more than 100 Tonnes were basically laughably bad penis compensators. After the [[Clan Invasion]] people are beginning to make them work, but logistics keep them towards being niche.

=== Combat Role ===
In terms of combat utility, BattleMechs can be split into certain categories based on their specifications. While some roles may be filled with conventional armored vehicles, they take either a higher weight class or a larger motor pool to compensate.

* '''Scout''': The fastest of the lot but mounting light armaments while armored with tinfoil. These speedsters rely on agility and small size to scoot from place to place before gathering intel from their sensors on the enemy to radio back to their bigger partners. They also like to shoot at the weak spots of any enemy unit they can outflank before running away to avoid being scrapped by returning fire.
* '''Striker''': Second only to scouts in a race while sporting a short ranged arsenal and decent armor. These jocks are meant to run up to enemy units and let loose with all the firepower they can get into range. They work best while charging in a swarm with covering fire from other units as well as terrain that can conceal their approach until they can get the jump on an enemy.
* '''Skirmisher''': Fast moving while outfitted with medium ranged weapons and reasonable armor. They’re generalists who can be flexible jacks-of-all-trades. Often times, they partner with other combat roles for both ends to compensate for each other's short comings. They can also be used for running battles where a scout's paper-thin armor is too light to survive but need fire support from snipers or missile boats during sieges to avoid being turned into swiss cheese by other units with a heavier arsenal.
* '''Brawler''': On the slower range of mobility while kitted with medium-to-long ranged weapons and heavy armor. These guys are the main component of an attack wave. While they're not good at long duration fights and running battles, they serve well as escort units for Juggernauts, as either defensive guards or offensive breachers during sieges, and can flush out hidden units out of their hidey-holes.
* '''Missile Boat''': Sitting back from the front lines, these units seek to provide indirect fire in the form of missiles or artillery shells while hiding behind cover. Compared to snipers, they do not need to have a direct line-of-site on their targets but are more dependent on targeting data from scouts.
* '''Sniper''': Similar to the missile boat but with a long ranged weapon that requires direct line-of-sight, these guys are slower than skirmishers or strikers but their platform stability allows them to take pot-shots at other units reliably. While escorts with short-ranged weapons can make up for their lack of perimeter defense or melee capability, they're best used while hidden away from plain view.
* '''Juggernaut''': The slowest of the pack but possessing powerful short-ranged weapons with thick slabs of armor, these mobile fortresses rely in pure inertia to keep the ball moving forward and can work in unison with other unit classes to get in range of distracted enemy units or fortifications before using their arsenal to delete any target from the field.

=== Other ===
Beyond weight and combat specialty, there are a few other specialized types of BattleMech, each with their own strengths and drawbacks.

* '''Bipedal''': A mech with two legs, most common type; broken down into three separate subcategories such as '''Humanoid''', '''Reverse Joint''', and '''Digitigrade''', however performance between the three is negligible as all three have both standout variants and regrettable variants alike.
*'''Tripodal''': An experimental three-legged variant that's only rarely been used, even when the design idea gained traction in the 32nd century, only four mechs in the entire canon have ever used this variant. What does make them stand out though is their ability to constantly move in any direction without braking and their proven ability to be built as Super-Heavy tonnage.
*'''Quadropedal''': A mech which has four legs instead of two. They have something of a bad reputation for allegedly requiring more crew and less armor, but on the other hand can loose a leg and still be in the fight. Are far less common than Bipedal Mechs, but are still fairly common as mobile fire-boats. Another transformable variant is "Quadvees" among Clan Hell's Horses that can change back and forth into tanks. While they can still fight if the gyro is damaged in tank form, the extra limbs and servos for transforming gives them the same weaknesses of being stuck in one mode after being damaged as their LAM relatives.
*'''SecurityMech''': Sometimes referred to as MilitiaMechs, PoliceMechs, or (if they’re field-modified off existing IndustrialMech chassis) MOD’s, these are basically up-armored and armed IndustrialMechs. Often used for internal policing, quelling riots, fending off giant wildlife, and anti-piracy deterrence, they're usually used for guarding critical infrastructure or facilities that are far from the front lines. Due to their less robust construction, lighter weapon load-out, and less energy intensive engine, they're marginally better than combat vehicles for front line combat. On the other hand, they’re cheap enough that any backwater planet can buy them if atmospheric aircraft and tank use for security isn’t enough and they’re good enough for preventing covert sabotage, banditry, and insurgent activity. Like mainstream BattleMechs, they have their own weight classes: Light (10-15 tons), Medium (20-25 tons), Heavy (30-35 tons), and Assault (40-50 tons).
*'''FrankenMech''': more formally called HybridMechs, they're basically any [[Looted|ad hoc]] and [[Mekboy|non-standardized]] Mech created by cobbling together any spare parts from a dozen other BattleMechs that a mad engineer or desperate pirate can scrounge from their basement without any corporate support or standardized template. Deep in the Periphery, they're also called Corsairs.
*'''[[Robotech|Land Air Mech]]''': sometimes called LAM's. Basically a light mech that can transform from an Aerospace Fighter into a regular mech. They got invented during the Star League and were experimental reconnaissance units but got phased out due to being more fragile than regular fighters and mechs. Out of universe, Battletech developers decided it was too much effort to keep without lawsuits from Harmony Gold (as seen with the infamous "Unseen/Reseen" mech artwork from other IP's).
*'''[[OmniMech]]''': the Lego/Swiss army knive variant of a regular Mech. Can change their loadouts as quickly as diapers' and carry [[Clan Elemental|armored infantry]] but are way more expensive.
*'''ProtoMech''': spanning the gap between Battle Armor that maxes out at 2 metric tonnes and UltraLight BattleMechs below 20 tonnes, ProtoMechs were created by Clan Smoke Jaguar to make the most out of their shrinking resource base after the Second Star League drove them out of the Inner Sphere. While the Clan ultimately died out in the end at the Great Refusal, the ProtoMech Concept remained in use by the Clans for some time. Instead of using a traditional cockpit, a embedded circuitry system grafted under the skin of the pilot (used by some Clan Warriors for traditional Mechs) enabled pilots to use a ProtoMechs’ limbs like their own in a fancy version of augmented reality hooked to mechanical limbs. Additionally, the smaller size and direct interface with a pilot's senses removed the need for a bulky gyro . However, such interfaces still shortened users’ lives and made them feel the loss of limbs as painfully as if it were their own being sheared off. Naturally, outside the Blakists incorporating the interface tech into their Manei Domini cyborgs, no Inner Sphere faction tried to reverse engineer them due to technical issues and ethical concerns. Thus, they remain an obscure niche within some Clans.

== Notable BattleMechs ==
Over the span of seven centuries there has been like a bajillion different makes and models of Battlemechs, most of which have at least a couple variants ranging from swapping out one brand of armor for another to rebuilds which put it into another weight class and combat role. As BattleMechs can last for centuries and are rather resilient things that can more often than not be at least partially salvaged after their pilot has been removed, there are still plenty of vintage units out and kicking. For a comprehensive list, go to [https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page Sarna]. Never the less, here's some notable mechs.

==== Ultralight ====
* Flea - the lovechild of a [[All Terrain Soup|AT-ST]] and a [[Sentinel]] walker. Good speed and sensors but avoid being shot.
* Celerity - Created by Comstar, it's one of the first drone Mechs. Resembles some quadrupedal drones in the real world.
* Road Runner - Called the Emerald Harrier by its Jade Falcon creators, it has the dubious distinction of being sold to the Republic of the Sphere by the Sea Foxes as a nifty scout.
* Prey Seeker - One of the fastest Spheroid Mechs, it was created by the Feds for raiding during the Dark Age.

==== Light ====
*[[UrbanMech]] - The little mech that could!
*[[Hollander]] - Mech with a big gun, or big gun with legs? You decide!
* Locust - Totally not stolen from Crusher Joe.
* Wasp - ...or Macross
* Stinger - Really. Believe us.

==== Medium ====
* [[Shadow Hawk]] - Or any anime inspired by Suns, Fangs, or Dougrams of such.
* Hunchback - The original "My, what a big gun" mech.
* Griffin - And back to IP infringement accusations.
* [[Phoenix Hawk]] - Max wants his plane back.

==== Heavy ====
*[[Timber Wolf]] - The bastard lovechild that everyone loves.
*[[Catapult]] - Proud parent of furry children.
* Marauder - Proud parent of furry children, deported for being an illegal alien from another IP. Than bought back after a redesign to avoid lawsuits.
* Rifleman - Proud uncle of furry children. Was also deported for shooting other illegal aliens despite being an illegal IP alien as well.

==== Assault ====
*[[Atlas]] - Big Death! Big Death! Big Death!
* King Crab - Preferred tool for cracking thick shells.
* [[Mackie]] - The Original!(tm) Accept no substitutes!
* Banshee - The Bradley of the Mech world. Big, fast, lightly armoured, and questionably armed.

==== Super Heavy ====
* Matar - Amaris [[Nazi Equipment|Wunderwaffen]] gambit. [[Fail|Cripple]] due to lack of good legs.
* Omega - Superheavy attempt 2, [[Word of Blake|Wobbie]] boogaloo. First successful prototype no thanks to pillaged ClanTech.
* Poseidon - “War of the Worlds” Tripod meets copious amounts of armor and dakka. 3 man crew required.
* Ares - OmniMech Version of Tripod above. Plug and play configuration modules as needed.

[[Category:BattleTech]]