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BattleMech

2022-11-08T20:29:52Z

2607:FB91:1136:8D57:5CCE:FE3C:A930:16E4: /* Internal systems */

'''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. Other specialties include Listen-Kill warheads aimed at electronic signatures or ARAD missiles tracking radiation emissions. Alternatively, the warheads can be swapped with special-purpose munitions.
* '''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. Also useful in combination with [[Drop Pod|Drop Pods]] for combat drops from DropShips onto combat zones that are too well defended to risk a conventional DropShip landing and BattleMech deployment.
* '''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 transmitting intel from their sensors on the enemy back to their bigger partners. They also like to shoot the weak spots of any enemy unit they can outflank before running away to avoid crumpling under 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 as well as concealment from terrain 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 will crumple in sieges from units with a heavier arsenal unless they’re supported with covering fire.
* '''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 foxholes.
* '''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 reliably. While escorts with short-ranged weapons can make up for their lack of CQC 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. Operational, they work in unison with other unit classes to get in range of distracted enemy units or fortifications before using their arsenal to delete said targets 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 ====
'''Inner Sphere'''
* [[Commando]] - A heavily armed little trooper.
* [[Firestarter]] - Walking warcrime that deletes infantry.
* [[Hollander]] - Mech with a big gun, or big gun with legs? You decide!
* [[Jenner]] - The frontline light.
* [[Locust]] - A speedy little mech totally not stolen from Crusher Joe.
* [[Panther (BattleTech)|Panther]] - A slow little sniper.
* [[Raven (BattleTech)|Raven]] - Only I get to decide whose targeting systems work.
* [[Spider (BattleTech)|Spider]] - For fighter pilots who accidentally got assigned a mech.
* [[Stinger]] - Really. Believe us. Not stolen.
* [[UrbanMech]] - The little trash can/mech that could!
* [[Wasp]] - Totally not taken from Macross.

'''Clan'''
* [[Adder|Adder/Puma]] - A light sniper. Naturally, as a clan mech, it outguns inner sphere mediums.
* [[Cougar]] - A heavily armed Jade Falcon light. Rumors that it was named after a certain trainer should be reported to your commander.
* [[Fire Moth]] - I am speed.
* [[Howler]] - Clanner’s first missile boat.
* [[Kit Fox|Kit Fox/Uller]] - A well-armed clan mech with cute little ears.
* [[Piranha (BattleTech)|Piranha]] - It turns out 12 miniguns on something moving 150 km/h will chew through anything.

==== Medium ====
'''Inner Sphere'''
* [[Blackjack]] - Mini rifleman.
* [[Centurion]] - Classic, reliable, and dependable trooper.
* [[Cicada]] - Overgrown light.
* [[Crab]] - Carcinization is all the rage, even among mechs.
* [[Enforcer]] - The very picture of “average medium”.
* [[Griffin]] - And back to IP infringement accusations. Jumpy sniper.
* [[Hatchetman]] - The cutting edge of 31st century tech: a really big axe. Usually min-maxed for jumping.
* [[Hunchback]] - The original "My, what a big gun" mech. Available in lots of flavors.
* [[Phoenix Hawk]] - Max wants his plane back. No, it doesn’t look like something from Macross, stop asking.
* [[Shadow Hawk]] - Definitely not copied from any anime inspired by Suns, Fangs, or Dougrams of such. Surprisingly mediocre.
* [[Trebuchet]] - Flings missiles while wearing a stylish little hat. Centurion's BFF.
* [[Wolverine]] - A frontline medium that makes clanners froth at the mouth at its mere mention.

'''Clan'''
* [[Ice Ferret (BattleTech)|Ice Ferret/Fenris]] - A fridge with a PPC.
* [[Nova (BattleTech)|Nova/Black Hawk]] - Laser boat famous for melting itself.
* [[Stormcrow (BattleTech)|Stormcrow/Ryoken]] - A simple, effective medium clan mech.
* [[Viper (BattleTech)|Viper/Dragonfly]] - A jet that grew legs.

==== Heavy ====
'''Inner Sphere'''
* [[Archer (BattleTech)|Archer]] - Your standard missile mech, now with fists.
* [[Axman]] - Exactly what it says on the tin.
* [[Black Knight (BattleTech)|Black Knight]] - Frontline command mech that can lose limbs and keep fighting.
* [[Cataphract]] - A bunch of broken mech parts glued together.
* [[Catapult]] - Proud parent of clanner children. The classic missile mech.
* [[Dragon (BattleTech)|Dragon]] - Kurita: I hate medium mechs. Also Kurita:
* [[Grasshopper]] - Light mechs got you down? Call me.
* [[Jagermech]] - Dakka dakka dakka.
* [[Marauder (BattleTech)|Marauder]] - Proud parent of clanner children, deported for being an illegal alien from another IP. Than bought back after a redesign to avoid lawsuits. A strong generalist.
* [[Orion (BattleTech)|Orion]] - The poor man’s atlas. If it's good enough for Kerensky, it's good enough for you.
* [[Rifleman]] - Proud uncle of clanner children. Was also deported for shooting other illegal aliens despite being an illegal IP alien as well. Has a strange dislike of aircraft.
* [[Thunderbolt]] - Have we said the word “Dougram” enough yet? An all-rounder that runs hot.
* [[Warhammer (BattleTech)|Warhammer]] - Ripped from the cover of the first book, and from Destroid before that.

'''Clan'''
* [[Ebon Jaguar|Ebon Jaguar/Cauldron Born]] - A clan mech that doesn’t know how to die.
* [[Hellbringer|Hellbringer/Loki]] - When you can’t decide what weapons to bring, so you bring them all. You didn’t really need that armor.
* [[Mad Dog|Mad Dog/Vulture]] - The clan’s archer, meaning more speed, more firepower, 10 less tons, and 3 times the price.
* [[Summoner (BattleTech)|Summoner/Thor]] - Thunder and lightning to bully those smaller than you.
* [[Timber Wolf|Timber Wolf/Mad cat]] - The bastard lovechild that everyone loves. All purpose clan heavy that defines “Omnimech”.

==== Assault ====
'''Inner Sphere'''
* [[Annihilator]] - You like shotguns?
* [[Atlas]] - Big Death! Big Death! Big Death!Lots of weapons, lots of armor, and always ready for Halloween.
* [[Awesome (BattleTech)|Awesome]] - A big old all-energy sniper.
* [[Banshee (BattleTech)|Banshee]] - The Bradley of the Mech world. Big, fast, lightly armoured, and questionably armed. If you’re assigned it, your commander doesn’t like you.
* [[Battlemaster]] - Another all-rounder stolen from Dougram.
* [[Charger]] - A big, speedy mech that left its weapons at home.
* [[Cyclops (BattleTech)|Cyclops]] - Command and control headquarters in the shape of a mech.
* [[Fafnir]] - A pair of cannons with a mech built around them.
* [[Highlander]] - 90 tons of mech falling on your cockpit while blaring bagpipes from its cockpit.
* [[King Crab]] - Preferred tool for cracking thick shells. Don’t let it get close.
* [[Mackie]] - The Original!<small>(tm)</small> Accept no substitutes!
* [[Stalker (BattleTech)|Stalker]] - A heavily armed, heavily armored blimp.

'''Clan'''
* [[Dire Wolf (BattleTech)|Dire Wolf/Daishi]] - The biggest, meanest, protagonist-iest clan mech around.
* [[Executioner (BattleTech)|Executioner]] - Surprisingly fast for its size, and surprisingly killable as well.
* [[Gargoyle (BattleTech)|Gargoyle/Man o' War]] - Very fast, very undergunned.
* [[Kodiak]] - A giant teddy bear, complete with claws.
* [[Bane (BattleTech)|Bane]] - Unleash the autocannons.
* [[Supernova]] - A giant reactor meltdown waiting to happen.
* [[Turkina]] - Named after the original jade falcon, and equally as violent.
* [[Warhawk|Warhawk/Masakari]] - Sniper, now with aimbot.

==== 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]]

BattleTech Spacecraft

2022-11-08T17:40:06Z

2607:FB91:1136:8D57:5CCE:FE3C:A930:16E4: /* DropShips */

This page is about '''Spacecraft in the [[BattleTech]] universe'''. In general BattleTech space travel is mostly fairly well grounded. From a narrative perspective, Spacecraft in the BattleTech universe generally takes a secondary role to combat on the ground with [[BattleMech]]s, [[Clan Elemental|Elementals]] and similar. Never the less, it is fairly well explored.
==Systems==
=== Kearny-Fuchida Drive ===
FTL Travel in Battletech is achieved thanks to '''Kearny Fuchida Drive''' ('''KF Drive''' or '''Jump Drive''' for short). Developed in the early 22nd century by the Deimos Project it made it's first jump in 2108, it opened up the galaxy to human colonization shortly afterwards with the first extrasolar colony being established in 2116 on Tau Ceti IV. After that there has been some incremental refinements but the basic system have not changed much since then. Physically, it’s a titanium-germanium alloy core that’s meters thick and surrounded by a super-cold envelope of liquid helium while hooked up to controls and circuits to act as a capacitor.

To Jump from system to system, you need a lot of power and that power takes a long time to build up from collecting solar wind from a sail-shaped energy collector. Then you need a Jump Point, typically these are zones of space above the North and South Poles of a Star which are the preferred points but there are other spots to jump from called Pirate Points which are riskier. It takes a bit of time to spin things up even when the Drive is fully charged but once the timer reaches zero, you are effectively instantly transported to your destination, another Jump Point within 30 LY of where you started from. Jump Drives release a lot of light and radiation when they Jump, meaning that a stealthy arrival is not really possible. They are also rather pricey pieces of hardware.

Occasionally things go wrong: a ship missjumps and ends up far off course, arrives badly damaged, blows up or simply disappears. The risk goes up if you don't calculate things right and there is less fudge factor with Pirate Points. Even so while it is kind of clunky, it's a generally safe way to get from Point A to Point B across interstellar distances (at least in comparison to the inherent risks of Space Travel), they can last for centuries and of course [[FTL (Warhammer 40,000)|you are not literally taking a detour through Fucking Hell]].

=== Artificial Gravity ===
Either comes from thrust while the ship is under acceleration or rotating centrifugal sections.

=== Weapons ===
Basically larger versions of BattleMech, Aerospace Vehicle, or Combat Vehicle armaments. The only difference is their scale and (if big enough) possible capabilities in orbital bombardment.
* Lasers
* Particle Projector Cannons
* Missiles
* Gauss Cannons
* Nukes

== JumpShips ==
A Ship with a Jump Drive is called a JumpShip. Typically the Ship is built around the Jump Drive, with up to 95% of the total volume of a typical JumpShip being dedicated to that specific mechanism and it's ancillary systems. They are also typically large. The smallest JumpShip was the Bug-Eye, a 129 meter long 6,100 tonne specialized surveillance craft and it's rare to find one under 100,000 tonnes.

Civilian JumpShips as a rule can't do much more than Jump, having only minimal STL fusion drives they spend most of their days skipping from point to point ferrying STL ships which latch onto their Jump Points and using big solar panels to recharge. Only occasionally coming into port at space docks for maintenance and so their crews don't die of boredom. By 3055, there were something to the effect of 30,000 JumpShips in operation in the Inner Sphere at a minumum. In the early 31st century, production of new civilian JumpShips had been reduced to a trickle compared to what it had been under the [[Star League]].

Some of them might might have a few guns for defense and occasionally pirates might slap on some more for raids, but this is like slapping an M2 Browning and some home-made rocket launchers onto a river barge or a cruise ship. Yes, it works but it's far from optimal and you'd only really do it if you could not put together something proper, speaking of which...
=== WarShips ===
WarShips are JumpShips that have two defining features. First of all and most obvious is that they are are armed and armored and are made for combat. Secondly they have Compact KF-Drives which do the same job as the regular civilian models while being half the size, but come at a price-tag five times higher than normal. This means they have space left over for fuel, weapons, armor, redundant systems, engines that can get around a system faster than a metaphorical space tortoise and similar. These range from comparatively small frigates a couple hundred meters long to two-kilometer long Dreadnoughts.

The thing about WarShips is that one of them in orbit of a planet can drop a lot of fuckload of nukes and cause a lot of devastation, as well as being able to provide less apocalyptic orbital support to forces on the ground. After the collapse of the old Terran Alliance, the powers that had the resources to build WarShips of their own were able to impose their social orders onto systems and planets which lacked them, giving rise to the [[Inner Sphere|Successor State]]s. When the peer powers met, this caused it's own problem. The best response to a WarShip is another WarShip, hopefully to intercept before it reaches a populated world or if that fails as a means of retaliation. The [[Ares Convention]] was put into place to prevent worlds from burning and [[Star League]] tried it's best to demilitarize the Inner Sphere to avoid that. Unfortunately, their worst nightmares came true after the First Succession War when the Successor States proceeded to spend their fleets bombing everyone back into the stone age.

During the Succession Wars, Warships became LosTech to most of the Inner Sphere the Near Periphery. All examples were destroyed and the survivors had only a limited capacity to churn out a few new civilian JumpShips every year. ComStar had a few Warships squirreled away in distant asteroid bases. The only place were WarShips were actively being made was [[The Clans|Clanspace]], in which bigger and badder WarShips than ever before were coming out of Clan drydocks, on top of a lot of old SLDF WarShips that had been part of the Exodus.

===YardShips===
Straddling the line between a converted WarShip and a collapsible orbital space station equipped with a KF Drive (like the Hughes-derived Hephaestus class orbital factories), they’re basically the equivalent to naval heavy-lift ships used for transporting ship hulls in real life. More focused on repairs and accommodation of crews, they’re not as well armed as WarShips. While they became LosTech with the bulk of the Newgrange and Faslane class being destroyed in the Succession Wars, Clan Sea Fox in the Dark Age converted some of their WarShips into CargoShips and ArcShips from Potemkin class WarShips to transport their orbital factories, house their population, and store their merchandise on a massive scale to support their nomadic civilization.
==STL Craft==
===Monitors===
A failed experiment in designing an interplanetary WarShip without a Jump Drive and replacing the mass it would occupy with more engines, weapons, or armor. If all you do is strip out the Jump Drive from an existing WarShip design, you lose key structural supports that cause the monitor to tear itself apart when attempting maneuvers. Nobody ever got around to designing one that was structurally sound. After the catastrophic failure of the first Monitor prototype, nobody in the Battletech universe believes its possible to even conceive such a thing, much less attempt to build it; even while the Succession Wars were ranging and WarShips were becoming LosTech artifacts because nobody could replace the Compact K-F drives they used, everyone understood that monitors were as useless as a sword made out of gold. [[Skub|Never mention them, ever]].

Officially, CGL has declared that Monitors will never be a thing in Battletech because their existence would fuck up the setting too much. Given the way tonnage works in the game, any WarShip would be outclassed by any Monitor of equal tonnage while their relative technical simplicity would make them far more common and thus a much more important part of the setting than WarShips, DropShips, and AeroSpace Fighters currently are.

=== DropShips ===
DropShips are STL ships which are capable of landing on a planet's surface, launching themselves back into space and getting around a star system on their own carrying people, cargo and BattleMechs. It is possible to build a JumpShip which can do this as well, but it's generally considered to be not worthwhile and almost all of them them are built, work and meet their ultimate fates (salvage, destruction in battle, lost in a missjump, whatever) entirely beyond a planet's atmosphere. To get from system to system, DropShips latch onto specialized hardpoints on JumpShips to be ferried about.

Both Civilian and Military DropShips are built and used, with the distinction being one of armor, armament and intended cargo. In a pinch a civie DropShip can deploy Mechs into the fray, but you'd prefer one that can take a beating and actually fight back somewhat against interceptors and provide a bit of ground support. Military DropShips are sometimes used in Fleet Battles, especially when on the offensive.

Most of them are egg shaped, landing pointy side up. Others look like bulked up Space Shuttles. Some are equipped to release BattleMechs in [[Drop Pod|Drop Pods]] but only for special operations where anti aircraft defenses are too stiff to mount a conventional landing.

=== Aerospace Fighters ===
Fusion-reactor powered Fighters that can operate in both planetary atmospheres and in space. A bit chonky compared to, say, Star Wars fighters and can weigh between 20 to 100 tonnes. They are dependent on carrier vessels. Another variation are OmniFighters. They are just as modular as OmniMechs but just as expensive and niche.

=== Conventional Fighter ===
Combat aircraft that are restrict to planetary atmospheres. Unlike their more advanced brethren, they can use propellers and conventional combustion engines instead of fusion reactors while being cheaper for militia.

=== Small Craft ===
Small shuttles, life boats, and escape pods and so forth that weigh less than 200 tonnes. They're basically the equivalent to the real-life Space Shuttles and reusable space planes that we see in the 21st Century.

== Notable Battletech Spacecraft==
===JumpShips===
* '''Invader''': In 3025 this single miss-named class of cargo ship constituted about 46% of all Inner Sphere JumpShips.
* '''Magellen''': ComStar's version of the Enterprise, used to explore the Deep Periphery, one of these ships had the misfortune of stumbling to [[Clan Smoke Jaguar|Chimney Kitten territory]] in 3048 and set off the [[Clan Invasion]].
===WarShips===
* '''Leviathan''': The biggest fucking ship in BattleTech, built by the Clans in no small part as a flex.
* '''Nightlord''': The most recent Clan Battleship, whose combat efficiency suffers slightly since the designers decided it should also be capable of langing a whole planetary assauly force on its own. Still, a Clan tech Battleship is stil a serious threat to everyone.
* '''McKenna''': THE Old Star League era Battleship. Armed with massive PPC batteries, and built in numbers only the Star League of old could afford, these were the backbone of the fleet that retook Terra from Amaris.
* '''Texas''': A somewhat older Battleship class, the Texas class were noted for their durability.
* '''Fox''': a tiny corvette that wouldn't have raised any eyebrows in the olden days... but these are also the first warship class built after the loss of warship building technology due to the Succession wars. A symbol of the FedCom technology reintroducing proper Warship combat to the Inner sphere.

===DropShips===
* '''Normandy''': The classic egg fulla mechs.
* '''Overlord''': The other egg full of mechs. Also capable of serving as command posts but with only decent defensive armament. Has a clannerscum upgrade
* '''Union''': The other common staple. Basically a metal baseball crammed with mechs. Good enough that the Clans made their own clannerscum upgrade to it.
* '''Confederate''': The rival baseball to the Union. Was more spacious for crew but was smaller and had more advanced components that were harder to maintain.
* '''Intruder''': An example of an Assault DropShip, it’s smaller than the Union like the Overlord but was armed to the teeth and equipped with a medical bay. The Clans made their own version called the Sassanid.
* '''Leopard''': The classical shuttle version of a DropShip. The Clans upgraded all theirs to be the Broadsword.

===Aerospace Fighters===
* '''Shilone''': a Kuritan Aerospace fighter. It’s biggest claim to fame was being used in a kamikaze attack by the Free Rasalhague Republic that killed the IlKhan during the Clan Invasion and made it stall for a year as the Clans elected a new one.
* '''Chippewa''': an attack aerospace fighter with slow speed but lots of firepower, it was used by Clan Mongoose to design the Chippewa IIC with advanced targeting computers. Unfortunately, Coan Smoke Jaguar, who absorbed them, refused to use the design from such dishonorable schemers.
* '''Spad''': The same way the Mercury BattleMech is the OmniMech’s grandfather, the Spad is the OmniFighter’s grandparent. The Spad was designed to be modular and use off the shelf components interchangeable.
* '''Issedone''': One of the earliest Omnifighters created by Clan Snow Raven and likely the first, it was a successful technology demonstrator but wasn’t top notch compared other fighters. It would serve as a predecessor to the widespread Bakshir Omnifighter.

===Conventional Fighter===
*[[Mechbuster]]

===Small Craft===

[[Category:BattleTech]]

BattleTech

2022-11-08T17:38:54Z

2607:FB91:1136:8D57:5CCE:FE3C:A930:16E4: /* Warfare in the Thirty-first Century */

{{awesome}}
[[Image:NEW-BT-LOGOFLAT.png|NEW-BT-LOGOFLAT.png|center]]
{{Game Infobox
|name = BattleTech
|picture = [[Image:NEW-BT-LOGOFLAT.png|200px]]
|type = [[Wargame]]
|publisher = [[Catalyst Game Labs]]
|playno = Billions
|year = 1984
|books = Total Warfare or The BattleMech Manual
}}
{{topquote|It is the 31st century, a time of endless wars that rage across human-occupied space. As star empires clash, these epic wars are won and lost by BattleMechs, 23-56 foot tall humanoid metal titans bristling with lasers, autocannons and dozens of other lethal weapons; enough firepower to level entire city blocks. Your elite force of MechWarriors drives these juggernauts into battle, proudly holding your faction's flag high, intent on expanding the power and glory of your realm. At their beck and call are the support units of armored vehicles, power armored infantry, aerospace fighters and more, wielded by a MechWarrior's skillful command to aid him in ultimate victory. Will they become legends, or forgotten casualties? Only your skill and luck will determine their fate!|Product promotional tagline}}

'''BattleTech''', or '''MechWarrior''' as most of the non-neckbearded populace know it, is a tabletop wargame about armies of giant robots fighting one another for honor, money, and territory in a far-distant feudal future. Think [[Star Wars]] AT-STs, or [[Warhammer 40,000]]'s [[Imperial Knight|Imperial Knights]] (Games Workshop decided they liked Battlemechs too). It’s also perhaps the most realistic example of walker warfare. Using their size to mount sufficient energy generation and armor that they are fast enough, maneuverable enough, and armored enough that being a bullet magnet does not matter. Using their vertical build to mount numerous huge weapons that each would take up all the space on most tanks modern militaries would consider super-heavy. Usually operating in combined arms warfare and supported by tanks, hovercraft, aircraft, and infantry. Not sinking into the ground like its quicksand because dirt reaches maximum compression very quickly (and thus all anti-mech arguments are rendered invalid by combined arms, armor, power-plant, firepower, and actual science), and so on. The realism of the technology (if not the moronic House Lords and nonsensical events) is so great it could be a glimpse into the future. Y’know, before Bolos come along and replace everything.

This article is mostly concerned with the fluff and story of Battletech. If you're looking for a guide to getting into the game in the first place, check out [[Starting Battletech]].

==Holy Crap, Giant Robots Are Awesome==
[[Image:Batdroid.jpg|thumb|right|''Battledroids'', the first edition of the game, c. 1984. A ''literally''-textbook example on how to get sued nine different ways from Sunday.]]
In the early 1980s, [[Jordan Weisman]] was [[Weeaboo|fascinated]] by several Japanese [[anime]] involving giant robots, or "[[mecha]]." He was quoted as saying that he liked the designs and idea of giant robots fighting on the battlefield, but did not have a taste for the storylines that the Japanese wrote about them. In 1984, Weisman founded [[FASA]] and acquired the licenses to designs from several series, the most famous being ''Super Dimension Fortress Macross,'' though the largest portion came from ''Fang of the Sun Dougram'' and combined them to make Battletech.

The first edition of this game, called ''Battledroids'', was a hex-based boardgame played on a battlefield illustrated with various types of terrain. It came with two large plastic minis of featured mechs, imported from Japan. Initially, sales were mediocre as the sheer size of the mechs made them awkward in gameplay. Soon after the launch of ''Battledroids'' Lucasfilm filed a lawsuit against FASA for using the name "droids," which they had trademarked in 1978. Discretion being the better part of valor, FASA changed the name of the game to Battletech in time for the second edition printing in 1986. This time, cardboard stand-ins replaced the plastic miniatures, and a tradition was born. To this day, Battletech can be played without purchasing any physical models and with any proxy you please.

Following the release of the second edition, fans of the game clamored for new miniatures. FASA obliged, rescaling their mechs for more convenient play and designing a host of in-house mechs to broaden variety and bridge the gap between the sleek Macross and crude Dougram designs. New models notwithstanding, the third edition was shipped with solely Macross- and Dougram-based minis. However, in 1995 [[That Guy|Harmony]] [[Rage|Gold]], an American localization company which had licensed the international distribution and toy rights to SDF Macross, issued a C&D against FASA for the use of all mecha designs from the Macross franchise. FASA ceased production of these miniatures, which were among the most popular designs in the franchise, and published a fourth edition of the game in 1996 again featuring cardboard tokens, which were all based on their own original mechs.

Battletech hasn't had true new edition of the rules since 1995. Rulebooks and material published in '95 are still usable today in 2022. There have been a few box sets and other releases since then, including two entire side games. The first came in the mid 2000s, and was called Mechwarrior: Dark Age. A Clix-based game that abandoned the traditional hex grid and was sold with pre-painted miniatures in blind bundles, Dark Age lasted from 2003 to 2007. It attracted some new players but various decisions alienated a lot of the playerbase, and in the end classic Battletech outlived it. The other was Alpha Strike. Published in 2013, Alpha Strike uses the same miniatures and background as Battletech, but uses a faster paced rules system with less detail and a focus on larger clashes of mechs. Alpha Strike exists in parallel to Battletech, and is still receiving support with a new box set being released in 2022.

Through the 2010s, Battletech in something of a lull. After the closing of the Dark Age line and the shift to focus on classic Battletech and Alpha Strike, the narrative spent effort filling in the sixty year time skip that Dark Age started with. As a game, Battletech had issues - the market was crowded and Battletech, alone out of its competition, didn't have access to decent plastic mechs. An anniversary box set released in 2012 came with 26 plastic mechs, but they were of low quality and plagued with miscasts and missing pieces, so the majority of miniatures were still cast in metal. This changed at the beginning of 2019.

In January of 2019, Battletech was on a major upswing. After the release of the generally well-received PC game from Harebrained Schemes (titled Battletech but often called HBS Battletech to distinguish it from the tabletop), the property was in a good position, and Catalyst Game Labs released two new box sets - the first was the Battletech: Beginner Box and the second was Battletech: A Game of Armored Combat. These came with a total of 9 new miniatures (two in the Beginner Box and eight in AGoAC, with one duplicate between them), but these were only the first pebbles of the avalanche. In June of 2019, Catalyst announced a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funding for a new box set: Battletech: Clan Invasion. The campaign reached its goal in less than seven minutes, and in the end it lead to not only the Clan Invasion box with seven Clan miniatures, but a range of Force Packs, each having a set of 4, five, or 6 miniatures. Nine Inner Sphere lance packs, nine Clan Star packs, and two ComStar Level II packs were released in all, priced at $25, $30, and $35 and containing four, five, and six miniatures respectively. The kickstarter was an absolute success, and while the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted delivery, by 2021 the mechs were in players' hands and on store shelves. For the first time in its nearly forty year history, Battletech had a complete line of plastic miniatures. All had been redesigned to match modern aesthetics (and eliminate certain legal troubles), many of them by noted /tg/ artist ShimmeringSword, who had been hired based on mech fanart he posted to /tg/.

As of 2022, the plastic release train is still going strong - in April, Catalyst announced a new Kickstarter campaign titled Battletech: Mercenaries, along with a set of six mercenary themed Force Packs and a new box set for Alpha Strike. The story has advanced significantly, moving the "current" of Battletech into a new era known as the IlClan, and the first plastic miniatures for this era are trickling in with a Regent in one of the Mercenary force packs. The 32nd century may be a dark time, but for Battletech players, the future is bright.

===The Mechs===
{{topquote|"Shoot for his cockpit! [[Iron Hands|Kill the meat]], [[Adeptus Mechanicus|save the metal.]]"|Sergeant Robert "Deadeye" Unther (Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries - Training Tutorial)}}
BattleTech mechs function and are utilized more like tanks with legs than the super-agile flying mecha common in Japanese depictions. Mechs are deployed in formations of four or five, called lances in the Inner Sphere and stars in the Clans. They are able to operate in space, on planets with caustic atmospheres, underwater, and in a wide range of temperatures that would be lethal to unprotected humans. One of the biggest upsides of mechs as combat vehicles is their extreme efficiency-of-arms: an effectively limitless amount of time without requiring fuel due to their fusion reactors alongside hyper-efficient Myomer 'muscles' inside the Battlemech’s limbs that can carry more weapons and armor per-ton than any other combat platform in existence. The only things stopping a mech from being able to fight forever are ammunition, repairs, and allowing the pilot to rest. Even when a mech is destroyed, losing the pilot is a relatively rare occurrence thanks to very effective ejection systems. A destroyed mech chassis can also be salvaged and rebuilt to fight another day, good as new. In the early 3000s setting this means many mechs are often decades or even hundreds of years old, Ship of Theseus-style. Some mechs even have unique identities and/or affiliations with certain royal Houses or mercenary families. Also, as stated in the quote above, it's not uncommon for cash-strapped mercenaries, pirates, or even planetary militia to prioritize aiming for the cockpit and/or forcing Mechwarriors to eject from overheating/battle damage in order to claim the surviving Battlemech wreckage for salvage or as a spoil of war.

As far as locomotion styles, bipedal mechs are the most common, with the weapon systems mounted either in the torso compartments or on the arms. Quadrupedal mechs do exist but are relatively rare, they are slower than bipedal mechs and don't offer the same amount of weapon space for a given weight class and more legs (and more everything else) on a mech means, of course, greater expenses. Even rarer are tripod mechs, generally restricted to experimental super-heavy designs. Bipedal mechs can also grasp things in their hands (if they have them) like melee weapons or pesky tanks. Early versions of BattleTech feature mechs that could transform into fighter planes, but these were dropped relatively quickly in its life cycle due to copyright problems.

The main downside of mechs is their inability to efficiently manage heat buildup. Heat is generated by the fusion reactor, the environment, movement, and mostly as a result of firing weapons. Mechs mount multiple gigantic one-ton heatsink units to deal with this buildup, but it is a constant problem for pilots to manage. Mechs that feature a lot of energy-based weapons will generate especially high levels of heat, and therefore manage very poorly in extremely hot environments. Firing all the weapons of certain mech variants at once (the ''Nova'' mech is most infamous) can cause it to overheat to such an extent that the reactor core melts down before the heatsinks can shunt the heat out of the chassis, which is bad. Safety measures that shut down the entire mech when it reaches a certain temperature threshold are always installed, but since this usually happens in a combat situation, and thus leaves the mech defenseless, some pilots will intentionally disable the safeguards to take their chances. Depending on the technology level of a given game, more efficient heatsinks can be assigned to mechs that remove heat more quickly and allow hotter builds. The fluff also mentions some experimental heatsinks that changed the heat energy to light (<strike>???</strike>Actually plausible, we have been experimenting with this concept irl) but had the downside of making the mech look like a walking rave, as well as heatsinks that utilized caustic liquids to move heat faster but with a limited lifespan.

Weapons consist of three general categories: ballistic, energy, and missile. Each has its own strengths and weakness: ballistic weapons weigh more, require ammo, but do not generate much heat, energy weapons are the opposite, and missiles generate some heat/consume ammo but can be indirectly fired with targeting data from scouts. Outfitting a mech for the proper engagement is key to obtaining victory: mechs outfitted for mech-to-mech combat will generally mount only high-damage weapons with lower ammo counts and slower rates of fire, while mechs set for vehicle and infantry combat will mount weapons that fire quickly but do lower damage per shot. Likewise, mechs that do not expect steady resupply will mount more energy weapons so they are not beholden to ammo counts.

Mechs range between 20 to 100 tons in four weight classes, though a few experimental units lie outside these ranges. The weight classes are light (20-35), medium (40-55), heavy (60-75), and assault (80-100). Considering their size (23-56 feet), that's pretty light; the Maus (33 feet long and 11 feet high) mega-tank that Adolf Hitler demanded weighed 188 tons. (One possible explanation here is that the "tonnage" in a weight class isn't the weight of the mech, but rather the weight available to mount things on the chassis. So an Atlas assault mech has 100 tons of available space for reactor, life support, weapons, armor etc, explaining why various sub-types of a mech drop something and replace it with something else of equal weight. A Flea light mech has 20 tons). Rarer still are super heavy mechs (with weights between 110 to 200 tons). While they are walking fortresses that put even Assault Mechs to shame, they tend to be ridiculously expensive, extremely slow, have issues with supporting that weight, are vulnerable to attacks from swarms of smaller enemies like tanks, and have difficulty installing reactors with sufficient power. Top sustainable speeds of mechs vary from 32.4 kph (20 mph) for the assault ''Annihilator'' to 162 kph (101 mph) for the light ''Firemoth'' scout. Keep in mind that the American M1A1 Abrams tank has a top speed of 72 kph (45 mph) on a paved road and much less crossing difficult terrain. Mechs can also be mounted with rechargeable jump jets that give them the ability to hop across the battlefield or up/down terrain. According to varying fluff depictions, mechs are even able to climb up/down cliff walls and perform flying dropkicks to enemy cockpits, which is awesome.

Depending on where in the timeline the specific game takes place (this is a player choice), there will be two possible classes of mechs: [[BattleMech]]s and [[OmniMech]]s. Battlemechs are the older style, with a set number of variants that cannot be changed in the field. This style was universal in the Inner Sphere before the arrival of the Clans. Omnimechs, a Clan invention, feature a modular construction style and a snap-on software integration which gives them the freedom of changing loadouts quickly. For example, a ''Dragon'' Battlemech comes in a default configuration consisting of one LRM-10, one Autocannon/5, and two medium lasers. The 1C variant replaces the Autocannon/5 with an Autocannon/2 and more armor, while the 5N upgrades the Autocannon/5 to an Ultra Autocannon/5. A pilot must use one of these variants and is incapable of changing the loadout without serious hours-long reworking of the mech's internals in a Mech maintenance facility. Conversely, a ''Mad Dog'' Omnimech comes with a default configuration of two LRM-20s, two medium pulse lasers, and two large pulse lasers. A pilot is able to modify this loadout as they see fit within less than an hour with a technical team, say dropping the two medium pulse lasers for more missile ammo/armor or changing the LRMs to SRMs for short-range engagements.

Like most Western sci-fi series, Battlemechs are somewhat inspired by real theoretical technologies; their weapons range from machine guns (albeit very big ones) and missiles, to coilguns and particle accelerators. The biggest leaps from reality (aside from FTL travel and communications) are the fusion reactor, (a technology still only theoretically possible,) the neurohelmet, (which interfaces with the pilot's brain and keeps the mech upright based on the pilot's own sense of balance,) and the massive muscle-like Myomer fibers that actually allow the mech to move upon being exposed to electrical current.

While Battlemechs dominate the battlefields of Battletech, armored vehicles still have a place. Most of the time, tanks, hovercraft, and APCs are used where mechs would be too expensive (or too advanced) to maintain, or in roles where a mech would be ineffective. This means that, in addition to Battlemechs, one can find infantry, vehicles, aerial vehicles, naval vehicles, and spaceships. It is worth noting that vehicles can be a real threat to Battlemechs in great enough numbers, since they mount the same weapons as mechs. Some tanks can also push the 100-ton limit and sport the gigantic weaponry usually mounted on an Assault mech chassis. In other words, where mechs are [[Space Marines]], the vehicles are more akin to [[Eldar]] Aspects.

Mechs in BattleTech fiction also have a curious tendency to go up in a mini nuclear explosion when their reactor core is breached by weapon fire. Mushroom clouds, explosions, heat, radiation, the whole bit. This has been nicknamed "stackpoling" after BattleTech novel author Michael Stackpole, who includes at least one of these events in each novel he writes. If the reactor was actually breached, what should happen is a meltdown of the reactor (and probably some chunks of the surrounding mech) that quickly burns out because the reactor can't maintain the fusion reaction without proper containment. Reactors are generally incapable of generating an actual nuclear explosion: real-world reactor "explosions" are usually a result of the coolant flash-overheating and generating a pressure-based steam explosion that destroys the reactor building. Lingering radiation would still be a problem of course, but that is usually handwaved away in BattleTech fluff or not mentioned at all.

To get into the actual science of this, a hypothetical fusion reactor wouldn't produce that many radioactive substances. And what few they do would be relatively short lived and would be weak beta emitters. The most likely substance would be Tritium, which is where the stereotypical glow in the dark green radiation comes from. The Mech would glow in the dark but a decent decontamination process would render it mostly harmless. In other words, the stories are right for the wrong reasons.

More on actual science. A containment breach would produce a pretty big explosion. The reactor (assuming H+H fusion, which seems reasonable since we never hear anything about deuterium or H3 mining) would be operating at something close to 15,000,000K temperature and 250,000,000,000 atmospheres of pressure to induce fusion. Assuming there's a couple of cubic meters of gas being contained at those pressures by magnetic fields and surrounded by a few more cubic meters of vacuum, a sudden and catastrophic loss of containment would almost certainly cause an explosion that would cause a mushroom cloud and be easy to mistake for a small nuclear weapon.

==Warfare in the Thirty-first Century==

When somebody decides to attack another world, they load up their 'Mechs (and tanks, and infantry, etc...) onto massive shuttles called [[BattleTech Spacecraft|DropShips]]. These boost off into space and link up with Jumpships, semi-mobile Space-Fold drives sitting a ways out into the star's system (due to the limits of BattleTech FTL, Jumpships can't get any closer to a system's star than a radius roughly around the orbit of Saturn in the Sol System. For simplicity's sake, most Jumpships move to the zenith or nadir points directly "above" or "below" the star's orbital plane). The Dropships latch onto the Jumpships, which make a series of jumps from star to star until they reach the target system.

Compared to some sci-fi franchises such as Star Wars or Star Trek, aerospace combat between ships isn’t really that common for several reasons. For one, KF Drive used to propel Jumpships (all of which can’t land on a planet) makes up 95% of its mass and leaves little room for anything else besides Dropship docking ports, basic ship equipment, crew quarters, and the Jumpsail used for recharging the drive. And while Warships do exist with drives half the size as their civilian models, the drives alone are more than five times more expensive to build and are prioritized for only strategically-vital missions, like real-life Dreadnoughts. In that regard, Battletech’ Jumpships are closer to Dune’s massive but ungainly Heighliners, which transport combatants between stars and planets, but lack any inherent ability to fight, than Star War’s Star Destroyers, which are capable of both transporting combat units between stars and planets and are themselves capable of fighting. As a result, most aerospace combat is dominated by armed Dropships or aerospace fighters. Orbital bombardments and naval blockades are a thing but not typically used frequently due to how much firepower is required for a planetary scale.

Once they reach the destination (normally the "northern" or "southern" jump points of a star), the Dropships detach from the Jumpships and burn deeper into the system towards the targeted planet. Now Jumpships aren't stealthy, so anyone on the target planet likely detected their entrance into the system, and it typically takes Dropships seven days (varies dramatically for each star system) to reach the planet. Surprise attacks are nearly impossible, and defenders will have up to a week to get ready (some clever, smart, or just plain foolish people try to shave time by trying to match the target world's orbit with a nonstandard point closer to the planet, or even rare "Pirate" points caused by gravitational interactions between celestial bodies, but even this usually gives defenders at least a day to prepare, not to mention the hilarious habit of Pirate points to just mangle jumpships attempting to use them beyond recognition). In reality however, points in space where gravitational forces balance out aren’t actually rare (they're called [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_point Lagrange points] in real life) and there are five of those null-gravity points just for the Sun-Earth system, along with five more for the Earth-Moon system, and five more again for every other pair of celestial bodies orbiting each other that you care to name. Those points can be so close to destinations of strategic interest that by BattleTech standards, it would take probably just a few minutes to reach the Earth from one of its own null gravity points, seeing as BT dropships can reach Sol's zenith (the Sun's "northern" null-G point) or nadir (the Sun's "southern" null-G point) in just a few days from Earth, i.e., crossing more than the distance of one Astronomical Unit, or 150 million kilometres, in a strategically-insignificant amount of time.

As the invading force reaches planetary orbit, the defenders will usually try to intercept them with their own defensive ships, usually Dropships, Shuttles, Aerospace Fighters, and Conventional Fighters (like the [['Mechbuster]]) while the Attackers will launch fighters of their own. Space battle will begin in earnest as the defenders try to keep the enemy from landing on world at all (FASA originally had two separate games, Aerotech and Battlespace, that dealt with this stage of combat, but current BattleTech rules incorporate Aerospace combat for those who prefer it or want the full Theater of War experience).

If the Attackers can break through the orbital defenders, they can choose their landing site (usually near the target of course) and deploy either via a combat drop with [[Drop Pod|Drop Pods]] launched from DropShips or via Dropships landing at a secure LZ. The enemy will deploy to stop them and battle begins in earnest with ground combat typically consisting of combined-arms use of infantry, battle-armored troops, conventional armored vehicles, artillery, and BattleMechs. Meanwhile, any air assets in the form of aerospace or conventional fighters will duke it out to secure air superiority for shipping reinforcements via air drop, or trying to take out enemy ground units from above.

==Fluff==
[[File:Mad_Cat.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The [[Timber Wolf]] (Mad Cat if you're <s>Inner Sphere</s> <s>Freebirth Scum</s> Degrazi), one of the most iconic BattleMechs in the series.]]
{{topquote|''A thousand horrid Prodigies foretold it.
A feeble government, eluded Laws,
A factious Populace, luxurious Nobles,
And all the maladies of stinking states.''|Dr. Samuel "What The Fuck Am I Reading" Johnson}}
Much like [[Games Workshop|Warhammer]], the Battletech franchise has an extensive expanded universe. Dozens of books, numerous spinoff games, video games in multiple genres, and even an animated cartoon have delved into the setting and created an entertaining, if convoluted, history that has real influences on how the game is played. Unlike Warhammer, there are no [[Xenos]] (outside of some cavemen-like species), so humans get all the glory (and blame).

===History of the Inner Sphere===
After a period of typical [[Cold War]]-era speculative history: in details, the Soviet leadership is inherited by a fictional hardliner in the 80s and the Union survives until the 2010s where it splits in the Second Soviet Civil War (this was retconned in as the game was made when the USSR hadn't collapsed yet). The appointment of a hardliner leads to NATO reforming into the Western Alliance along with the proto-EU. The Western Alliance helps the split post-Soviet Eurasian states, is joined by China and other Asian countries after a brief crisis and eventually mankind was mostly united under the Western Alliance, having renamed itself to the Terran Alliance and discovered how to travel faster-than-light by opening up artificial wormholes. By 2235, most of mankind's interstellar colonies, already mistrustful of the heavy-handed Alliance, threw off the yoke of the Alliance in the "'''Outer Reaches Rebellion'''" and formed their own stellar nation-states. What followed was a period of war and chaos which led to the rise of the "'''Great Houses'''," feudal dynasties of powerful families adhering to various pseudo-historical ideals (like Kurita's Japan fetishism, specifically the most evil aspects of WWII Japan and every other Asian countries' worst parts of their histories up to eleven) competing for total dominance of mankind. However Terra, as Earth became known after its Latin name, remained the most technologically-advanced star nation, and remained unconquered by the competing Great Houses who turned their focus on one another instead. Shortly after the eve of this "'''Age of War'''" once the Terran Alliance left the far-off colonies to fend for themselves, the Terran Alliance’s bickering political parties were subject to a coup by the charismatic Admiral James McKenna with support from the populace. He reformed the Alliance into the Terran Hegemony and eventually, his titles were inherited by a distant cousin in House Cameron. In addition, both the colonies and Terra began placing more emphasis on nobility-based peerage to handle planetary governance, education, and manufacturing instead of the loathed vote-buying that defined the corrupt Alliance. This is one of the reasons for the severe technological stagnation that is a hallmark of the Battletech universe. After all, any idiot knows that destroying a factory or all of a certain factory production and all such factories means the knowledge of how to build their products magically disappears and the knowledge of how to build those factories poofed away the moment they were built anyway as that is the only explanation conceivable for why destroyed factories were not simply replaced and why the knowledge disappeared from every paper, computer, and mind; after all, universities and libraries can still preserve knowledge while remaining civilian institutions. Obviously space magic is to blame...or exceptionally short-sighted writers who’ll wave it off as [[Medieval Stasis |neo-feudalism in space]]. The main reason for the lack of tech was due to the Terran Hegemony hoarding most of the good tech for themselves and the Star League Defence Force. ER Lasers, XL Fusion engines, Pulse Lasers and so on were all SLDF exclusives, and the vast majority of advanced tech was only produced in the Terran Hegemony, which was utterly wrecked in the [[Amaris Civil War]]. Universities and libraries were nuked alongside military targets, and the Battletech universe lacks a true internet expy, making dissemenating information even by HPG a slow, expensive process. Any advanced tech factories or research institutes left after the Amaris Civil War vanished in the nuclear firestorm of the First Succession War. It took 80 years of more or less constant warfare before the great houses decided that blowing up civillian targets wasn't such a good idea. AND THEN, Comstar decided that nobody but them should have nice things so they started assassinating anyone who might make things better and stealing their research. Nobody really bothered trying to build a new university for actual research until 3015, when the Davions built the NAIS and the moment it looked like the NAIS might actually make some progress in reversing the technological decline, Comstar tried to blow it up. They failed, and the Federated Suns figuring out that Comstar was behind the attack marked the start of the decline in Comstar's influence.

To be clear, the given reason for how the neo-feudalism came about was due to oppression, social inertia, and interstellar communication lag. Before the invention of the HPG in 2630 (5 centuries after the KF Drive) it took weeks and months for planets to send updates on their status to their national capital and the entirety of the nation. Yet other than the Federated Suns good bois and to an extent the Lyran Commonwealth, most other nations don't have the same problems that destroyed the Alliance despite being oppressive. Super oppressive. Which begs one to question how the hell the Outer Reaches Rebellion happened outside of the same tension that tore the Star League apart later. And it still doesn't explain how the neo-feudalism came about as it would make much more sense to have technocratic administrators selected by merit to manage regions of space instead of giving someone and their offspring the level of authority an ancient noble would have had. Perhaps it began the same way some monarchies are known to have: lords (or whatever name for a rose you want to use) being basically miniature kings of their local areas who united and elected a royal dynasty from among their number to handle external affairs beyond their national borders.

In 2349, the Terran Hegemony introduced the first Battlemech, the 100-ton ''Mackie'', and the face of war changed forever.

===Mechs Just Got Real===
The introduction of the ''Mackie'' shifted the focus of military development away from interstellar Warships back to ground forces. The Terran Hegemony was able to prove that the 100-ton Battlemech was far superior to conventional ground vehicles (interestingly, the Terran Hegemony's main battle tank was <s>the Israeli Merkava</s> named Merkava but utterly unrelated to the Israeli tank of the same name), allowing a single man to destroy formations of opposing non-Mechs. Of course, the rest of the Inner Sphere wanted the same capability, and in 2355 the plans for the Battlemech were stolen (as usual, the writers don’t realize that stealing a design is pointless if you don’t know how to build all the parts...like myomer (Myomer that was already a popular material throughout the Inner Sphere, used in the IndustrialMechs before the Mackie was even a concept). ). The Age of the Battlemech had begun.

During the next hundred years, as the Great Houses vied for supremacy and founded the nucleus of the future Successor States, the Terran Hegemony was able to exert great influence as the most technologically-advanced and neutral of the great powers. This would lead to the creation of the '''''Star League''''' in 2571, a grand union of all of humanity's interstellar nations. While ostensibly created for the purpose of uniting mankind and keeping the peace between the stars, it was also a massive power play by Terra to secure the raw materials it needed to maintain its technological edge and once more bring mankind under Terra's dominion. In keeping with the feudal society that now dominated mankind's worlds, the position of First Lord of the Star League was invested in Terra's ruling House, the Cameron dynasty.

While Hidden Wars would plague the Star League throughout its reign, no conflicts were fought between its members as long as the Star League Defense Force kept the peace between factions. Terra's hoard of advanced technologies were shared freely among the worlds of man, and a new Golden Age descended. It all came to an end in 2766. The last of the Camerons was assassinated by Stefan Amaris, a power-hungry politician from the Periphery, the ring of interstellar nations that had refused to join the Star League and had been conquered for their trouble. Claiming the mantle of Emperor of the Star League and Director-General of the Terran Hegemony, Amaris was immediately denounced by the commander of the SLDF, Aleksandr Kerensky.

===A New Dark Age===
[[File:Aleksandr Kerensky.jpg|thumb|right|"Fuck you guys, I'm out." - Aleksandr Kerensky, Great Father of Clans]]
The [[Amaris Civil War]] destroyed the League, and led to a new Dark Age. The Great Houses, throwing off their loyalty to Terra, refused to aid either Amaris or Kerensky, and waited for the war to pass. Kerensky emerged the victor, but with the Cameron dynasty ended the other Great Houses began to vie for position of First Lord of the Star League. Disgusted by the politicking and betrayal, in 2784 Kerensky took the greater portion of the SLDF into exile beyond the Periphery. Those who remained pledged their loyalty to the Star League's last civil authority, the Ministry of Communication, which would later become Comstar, the sole provider of internet connections between worlds. Thus the Star League lost its last measure of power, and the Great Houses began the First Succession War.

[[Succession Wars|Four Succession Wars]], over the course of two centuries, would follow. Never would a Great House gain enough strength to declare itself master of mankind, especially since none would ever conquer Terra. Technology would [[Imperium of Man|stagnate and regress]], creating the Lostech phenomenon, technology which mankind could no longer reproduce, maintain, or even understand. Where before feudalism had been a political phenomenon, hundreds of worlds across the Inner Sphere regressed to or below the technological level of the 20th Century, and hundreds more in the Periphery failed entirely. The sole bright spot was [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Comstar]], the corporate religious entity which maintained the Hyper Pulse Generator network that enabled FTL communications between inhabited worlds. Comstar became the rulers of Terra in the wake of the Star League's collapse, and leveraged their control of the HPG network to ensure their inviolability in exchange for maintaining the incomprehensible HPG networks and neutral treatment of all communications between worlds. In order to maintain their power, they would actively [[Grimdark|sabotage, headhunt, or kill]] all promising technological advancements and promising scientists to maintain their monopoly and techno-religious authority. To be fair, unlike a certain [[Adeptus Mechanicus|cargo cult]], ComStar intervened because they realized the Great Houses were psychopaths and couldn’t be allowed to advance. Also, they were actually loyal-ish to the Star League and hated the Great Houses.

Eventually the Inner Sphere would stabilize around the Great Houses and their associated stellar empires. However, technological progress remained stagnant, and the rare factories capable of producing such advanced technologies as Battlemechs became critical components in the shattered military-industrial complexes of the so-called Successor States. Millions would die so that a LED monitor factory could be taken by one side, or so that a hundred precision-machined laser lenses could be plundered from a forgotten SLDF armory. Real progress towards recovery could only be made after large caches of information which survived the fall of the Star League were recovered; the most significant were the recovery of a long-lost Star League university's library in 3013, and the recovery and free dissemination of the contents of the Helm Memory Core in 3028. In 3028, the two largest and most powerful Successor States, the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth, were united by dynastic marriage, and it seemed that a new Golden Age might be only decades away.

But the Inner Sphere had forgotten all about Kerensky's exodus, and nobody wants ''Peace'' to break out in a wargame setting, soooo...

===Suddenly Clannerscum===
Kerensky and his followers first settled on the Pentagon Worlds, where they tried to start a new society and a new Star League. They failed though, and the wars erupted between the worlds, showing the bitter irony of life. Kerensky tried to move on, but suffered a heart attack, and the leadership was overtaken by his son, Nicholas Kerensky (who unlike his father had hair and was probably a closet [[furry]]). Nicholas took the remaining followers with him to a planet he called "Dream Land" and established the twenty original Clans.

The Clans are a tribal society that is divided into five castes - Warriors (religious and political leaders and soldiers), Scientists (less respected but are considered highly important), Merchants (detested and only kept as a necessity), Technicians (engineers and warriors' servants), and Laborers (serfs, repressed as needed). Although during the birth each child is tested for their relevance to a certain caste, but more often than not are the same as their parents. Speaking of which, Clanners strongly believe in eugenics, and most of the Warrior Caste members are genetically enhanced clones/mashups. Other castes are selectively bred by the instructions from Science Caste. On a positive side it would mean that even [[neckbeard|neckbeards]] would end up breeding (though given the Clan's brutal meritocracy/kratocracy, they'd end up as outcasts in the Bandit Caste). On the other hand, the society has only a few acceptable non-technical forms of information, meaning that there really is no reason for there to be neckbeards. Paradoxes aside, Clans were created towards efficiency, and even their language differs from the one used in the Inner Sphere. Clans constantly compete in everything, from combat to technological prowess, as they foresaw their return to the Inner Sphere and its liberation. (By their hands, of course. And logically resulting in their control.)

And that day was not far off. Unfortunately for the Inner Sphere, Comstar never forgot about Kerensky's Exodus and sent exploration vessels out to sniff out their trail and reclaim lost Star League outposts on the side. When the Clans captured one of the expeditions, they believed that the Inner Sphere would invade the Pentagon worlds. Ironically, the Clans used that as an excuse to [[Clan Invasion|return and invade]] before being forced back by the very invasion they were trying to prevent.

A prophecy of days far off, the '''''ilClan''''' is a religious myth that states that someday a Clan will take control of Terra, the Cradle of Humanity. The Khan (leader) of the Clan of Clans which captures Terra will become the new, true ilKhan (Khan of Khans) and re-establish the Star League, over which their blood shall reign in perpetuity. All will be Clan, Clan will be all.

'''''ilClan''''' is also an [[Skub|abortive Battletech rulebook]] that has been in the works since '''2002''', ever since the '''Dark Age''' Era was published. Ostensibly intended to be the next historical Era, featuring all new rules to reflect the dominance of Clan society and technology, the bankruptcies and sales that Battletech went through stalled all development. In addition, most fans are [[Advancing the Storyline|vehemently opposed to the destruction of most of the factions]] in the game, and have spoken up at every opportunity to denounce the plans behind ilClan. A prank release of a provisional ilClan historical outline drew tremendous outcry and Catalyst Game Labs has subsequently decided to focus on rereleasing and updating older Era rulesets.

===Meanwhile, In The Inner Sphere===
...Of course, when the Clans returned to the Inner Sphere with the intent of liberating it from the feuding Great Houses, those same great houses <s>said "okay" and handed over the reins</s> put aside their differences and fought the Clans to a stand-still. This was an incredible show of camaraderie, and the most cooperative the houses had been since the Star League fell. It was all quite touching, really.

Okay, not really. The Clan invasion was getting bogged down and while they were making progress towards Terra it seemed like the new normal would be just constant unending war because they couldn't manage to put any of the successors away for good. ComStar, the self-serving treacherous pricks that they are, decided that something needed to be done and so made the Clans a bet. The deal was, come to Tukayyid and fight our best in one big PROVE YOUR WORTH honorduel smackup. If the Clans won, ComStar would stab all the successors in the back, disconnect their HPG access and throw the doors to Terra wide open. If ComStar won, the Clans would agree to a fifteen year armistice.

The Clans, being honourable glory-seeking meatheads, agreed and converged on Tukayyid, dividing up objectives between Clans thinking that this was the beginning of the glorious endgame. All the while blissfully unaware that ComStar are every bit the cheating bastards you'd expect of an ISP in space with their own army. The Battle of Tukayyid wasn't a complete shutout for the Clans but it definitely illustrated that they still hadn't figured out how to actually win wars. In most of the engagements the Com Guard pounded the Clanners like discount tenderloin and because of their stubborn honourable ways the Clanners were obliged to abide by the cease fire by the logic of no-takey-backsies.

And then once the Clans were wrapped up behind a truce line it was time to get back to good-old inter-house wars. In an ultra-brief summary: There was the FedCom Civil War, kicking off the <s>Fifth Succession War</s> Word of Blake Jihad, the religious fanatic (well, moreso than usual) faction of Comstar went crazy over the entire Inner Sphere with cyborgs and nukes, until some dude named Devlin Stone got everyone to work together and kick them off Terra, then went on to form the Republic of the Sphere, essentially a re-establishment of the Terran Hegemony. In the meantime, the Clans got a bug up their asses over ideological purity after their Scientist Castes tried to take over, and all the Clans who invaded the Inner Sphere got kicked out of Clan Space to live there instead. Eventually someone forgot to pay the phone bill and the interstellar faster-than-light communication network went down. This ushered in the last era in the fluff known as the "Dark Age."

This is also considered the second ruination of the franchise by some. Many long-time fans think highly of the Succession Wars era of Battletech, right after the fall of the Star League. Marching around the field with walking tanks so expensive and rare that it's better to lose a pilot than a weapon is a powerful fantasy. It's often described as being "Mad Max with mechs." Of course, the blasted hellscape of the post-apocalypse is hard to maintain when the Clans invaded with their own brand-new shiny toys. The shift from "squabbling tribes with rusty guns" to "courageous defenders with shiny factories" is often considered the first ruination of the property ''(while a vocal minority, ie the clannerscum, hold it up as the only reason they got into it)''. When the squabbling of the Inner Sphere was broken up again by quasi-religious zealots and Battletech was forced to stitch in apocrypha from its bastard child, the miniature game MechWarrior: Dark Age, people considered it the second collapse of the franchise.

===ilClan Era <strike>Dawn of a New Age, or Not</strike>===
In 2019 Catalyst released '''Shattered Fortress''', the first half of a two-sourcebook set intended to finally advance the franchise into a post-Dark Age era. It ended with a cliffhanger: on New Year's Day 3150 a Clan fleet lands on Terra, but we don't know which Clan. Continuing the recurring theme of Battletech players not caring one bit about advancing the storyline, the release of the second book was then delayed indefinitely by the massive success of a Kickstarter offering more new miniatures and rules set 100 years back on the timeline. While each republished or recompiled rulebook has prologues hinting that the ilClan and Third Star League are around in 3250 from framing documents as archival material, details were deliberately [[Skub|left vague]]. Come 2021, and the novels have finally pushed the timeline out of the Dark Age, reception has been... [[Derp|eh]]. While some factions and characters got a lot of development and [[Awesome|heroic action]], many others were [[Rage|given the shaft]] or reduced to 2D [[FAIL|caricactures when they had potential for development]].

On January 1st, 2021 the novel ''Hour of the Wolf'' was released. Long story short, the Wolf Khan managed to get his hands on a way to bypass the Fortress Walls (unknown to most, Devlin Stone snuck them the access codes as he believed they were the least terrible of bad outcomes). Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon then beat the shit out of the Republic of the Sphere (but not before having the bulk of their commanders assassinated by headhunter units), fought a Trial of Possession for Terra, and the Wolves won. So, Clan Wolf is now ilClan. Their Khan made the Jade Falcons his clan's bodyguard (the bad elements having died fighting), and reconstituted Clan Smoke Jaguar as a non-voting clan and to serve as his clan's black ops/special forces. These Clans then created a new Star League (to a point). And with the combined might of these admittedly terribly mangled clans now strengthened by working together, they might actually make something of themselves. Others in the setting might not recognize them yet, but with the industrial might of the region(s) of space they occupy, they'll probably end up smashing faces and making it clear whose boss. Or they'll get booted off or everyone will just wait for them to self-destruct and then just walk right in.

==Factions Summary==
While each faction has a certain flavor and preferred equipment/tactics, factions do not limit your gameplay choices to particular sets of mechs/units/components, as in many other games ([[Warhammer 40,000]] is a good example, amongst many other skirmish-level wargames). So if something you want to use is in specific era of Battletech History (FEDCOM Civil War, Clan Invasion, et cetera), anything goes. Although it's common for players to roleplay as being employed by some major power, and limiting themselves to their styles. Either that or they play as mercenaries and do as they please. Seriously, the amount of in-fighting is in effect galactic level (in Warhammer 40k -- aside from humanity itself -- only the ''Necrontyr'', the flesh incarnations of the [[Necrons]], ever fought each other to such a long and drawn out extent).

===The Inner Sphere===
While other time periods might have better or more interesting rules, the most popular ruleset remains the eras between the Fourth Succession War (3028) to just before the Word of Blake Jihad (3067). This list of Inner Sphere factions covers those periods.

====[[Federated Suns]]====
Ruled by House Davion, the Federated Suns is feudal Space America or nepotistic Space UK. [[Lawful Good]], ruled by a Great House as inbred as any other is, and with all positions of power occupied by the same set of mostly blood-related elites. Without the blue blood, you're just a clever commoner. However, the Federated Suns isn't as stratified as the other Successor States, and it's easier for a common citizen to climb the ladders of wealth and power, which fuels an entrepreneurial society that is among the wealthiest in the Inner Sphere. They’re heroic defenders of freedom and democracy, provided you define “freedom and democracy” as “being ruled by the Federated Suns”. Their colors are red, white, and blue. Something about that sounds strangely familiar...

Similar to [[Ultramarines|a certain faction in a certain other wargame]], the Federated Suns usually win most of their battles, and are usually presented as the good guys, drawing a lot of accusations of Mary Suehood. Unfairly, though, as the FedSuns win so much due to wealth-fueled research and production. In other words, they work hard, do a good job, encourage businesses, and they get rewarded with victory. Unlike the Smurfs, however, the Federated Suns has actual flaws - their “democracy” is a rubber stamp, their rhetoric about freedom is mostly just an excuse to justify warmongering and imperialism, and they have such a staggering degree of wealth inequality that there are cases where the populations of multiple planets only have a single school to go between them. This means that the FedSuns attract two kinds of fans: twelve-year-olds who buy all the propaganda, and people who can appreciate playing a bunch of self-righteous, hypocritical jackasses. On the bright side, they do live up to the hype when it comes to individual liberties, and their rulers are genuinely competent and mostly don't dick them over.

Thanks to their great wealth, the Federated Suns can afford to fund actual scientific research in the form of the New Avalon Institute of Science, or Space MIT, and the Davions supported most of the tech development and recovery in the Inner Sphere prior to the Clan Invasion. They also got lucky when they found an ancient Star League library filled with various editions of tabletop wargame splatbooks. They are known to be the house that first heavily employed or utilized a lot of Clan personnel and technologies after the conclusion of the invasion.

The Federated Suns also kind of have a thing for autocannons. Think [[Space Wolves]] with wolves, or [[Orks]] with [[Dakka]], and you have an idea. If it does not have an autocannon on it the Suns will find a way to give it one, and if it does have an autocannon they find a way to upgrade it to a rotary autocannon. So if you like autocannons (and you should) this is the faction for you.

Prior to the Fourth Succession War, the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth were united through marriage (technically the political union was a treaty and the marriage was out of love and had no impact on the nations' unification), forming the Federated Commonwealth, the largest and most powerful empire in the galaxy since the Star League. In order to bridge the distance between the two nations, however, the Federated Commonwealth had to conquer large swathes of the Capellan Confederation, which they did easily. However, only a few decades later the Commonwealth was broken up by the FedCom Civil War, when Katherine Steiner-Davion schemed to either take over the Commonwealth or secede the Lyran half of it because she was a royal bitch. She is commonly known as simply The Bitch by many fans. And her splitting of the FedCom is incredibly weird since her nobles were against her, her military mostly liked the advantages brought by the FedSuns, and her public liked the massive boosts in economy and technological progress. Oh, and she was rebel usurper and had no authority to do any of the things she did. So her successful secession doesn't make a lick of sense and you just kinda have to suck it up. And to top it off, she had her mother murdered out of greed. The FedSuns are currently getting kicked around by pretty much everybody during the Dark Age, primarily because the current head of the house, Caleb, is extremely paranoid and rather psychotic.Thankfully he got killed by the Kuritans with some insider help from Clan Snow Raven (in exchange for some buffer territory). Not so thankfully, his death also brought the destruction a major chunk of the Davions' regular armed forces concentrated on one planet while enabling the Kuritans to take over the capital. Kuritans being what they're like, they probably raped and tortured everyone they didn't murder and alongside their dogs. <strike>''Save us, Julian!''</strike>

====[[Lyran Commonwealth]]====
[[File:Steiner Assault.jpg|350px|right|thumb|A typical scene of a Lyran Archon wondering why their cousin has failed to relieve the Commonwealth alongside a bloody frontline against their enemies. They're likely either at a ball dance or planning a coup.]]
Space Germany with some Space Scotland and Space Scandinavia kicking around, the Lyran Commonwealth is the largest successor state and owns the most resource-rich planets in the Inner Sphere, making them an industrial and economic powerhouse. Their government was supposed to be modeled on ancient Athens, led by a council of nine Archons, but this did not work out ''at all'', and eventually Archon Robert Marsden decided he'd had enough of this shit and overthrew the other Archons in a military coup. The Marsdens were eventually replaced by the Steiners via marriage, who have ruled the Commonwealth to this day.

The Lyrans are rich. Really, really absurdly rich. The only reason they haven't conquered the Inner Sphere yet is that they prefer to put the relatives of rich businessmen in charge of their army rather than, y'know, actual soldiers, meaning basically every Lyran military officer is terrible at their job. There is at least one recorded case of the Lyran military starting a major interstellar war ''by accident''. Fortunately, since they're so rich, they're able to make up for their ludicrous incompetence with the biggest and heaviest weapons in the Inner Sphere. The joke goes that a typical Steiner scout lance consists of four 100-ton '''''Atlas''''' mechs (imagine a scout-recon team composed entirely of [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord Titans]] and you'll get the idea). Steiner forces tend to be big and slow, barely able to outmaneuver enemy fortresses. Of course, once they (eventually) get into range, you can kiss that fortress goodbye.

Late in the Third Succession War, Archon Katrina Steiner shocked the entire Inner Sphere by actually calling for a peace treaty. Only Hanse Davion was at all interested, and he wound up marrying Katrina's daughter Melissa and uniting the two countries into one massive empire, the Federated Commonwealth (see above). Predictably, this Beauty-and-the-Geek romance started out exceedingly awesome then epically failed and it's back to single life for the too-pretty Steiners. They recently tried to have Clan Wolf migrate through their coreward territory to keep the Free Worlds League from reforming during the Dark Age while holding the transported civilian castes as insurance. The plan backfired with the Free Worlds League still reforming and Clan Wolf taking much of the coreward and middle territory in the Lyran Commonwealth to form the Wolf Empire. This, on top of a massive amount of civil unrest means the Lyrans are too busy with damage control from Wolf and Jade Falcon invasions along with internal rebellions to be a threat to anyone. The moral of the story is: don’t try to manipulate badasses who nearly conquered everyone without trying. They will fuck you up for it. Also, trying to hold civilians hostage against a culture that thinks civilians are barely human at all is pointless. It tends to go like "Okay, I'll kill a bunch of your people and conquer chunks of your territory". You threaten to kill the civilians and your enemy is totally incapable of understanding why they should care when they treat them as replaceable subjects instead of irreplaceable citizens. Come the rise of the IlClan on Terra and there’s a sudden power vacuum where the Jade Falcon occupation zone to the North use to be. This led to a massive Balkan-style disintegration of the said region alongside the Lyran’s northern provinces; many of resulting statelets are very ticked off at the Steiners for leaving them to rot. While Jade Falcons are barely around in the region, holdout territories and other Clans like the Hell’s Horses and Ghost Bears are eyeing the new buffer zone cautiously before seeking new planets to annex.

====[[Free Worlds League]]====
Taking elements from America, Yugoslavia, and Austria-Hungary, the Free Worlds League is a federal democratic republic. No, really! They have a parliament and everything. Of course, the commander-in-chief of the Free Worlds League Military is always a member of House Marik because parliament doesn’t think anyone else can do the job, and the entire country has been operating under martial law “for the duration of the emergency” since the Star League broke up. But in principle, both democracy and federalism are alive and well in Marik space, making it impossible to get anything done. Think of the Free Worlds League as Space Holy Roman Empire due to regionalist nationalism.

Everyone in the Free Worlds League hates everyone else in the Free Worlds League; the only thing keeping them together is mutual animosity to the Lyrans, Capellans, and Periphery bandits raiding their borders. After finding out that Captain-General Thomas Marik had been in hiding running the Word of Blake for decades and the guy they’d been taking their orders from all that time was actually just some hobo picked up off the street, they gave up on trying to make the thing work at all and collapsed. Which is a shame because fake Marik was actually one of the best Captain-Generals they ever had. After the Dark Age, said hobo’s daughter managed to put it back together again, which kind of makes you start to wonder about that whole “only the Mariks can handle the Captaincy-General” thing. Doesn't help that she had to make a deal with the Spirit Cat and Sea Fox clanners to cement the whole thing together as well as marrying the official Marik family's head.

The Free Worlds League Military is built around combined arms warfare, treating infantry, vehicles, and aerospace fighters as if they were just as useful as mechs. They also used to have the most LAMs back before [[squat|LAMs ceased to be a thing]]. They don’t get a lot of attention, since they’re far away from the FedSuns and the Clans and therefore don’t get involved in stories about factions the writers actually care about. The constant in-fighting probably doesn't help. That said, they most likely do enough to keep their jobs, which is probably good enough to satisfy the average Joe, who couldn't care less about political squabbles. Recent lore hints they’re probably at the forefront of the IlClan’s attention now due to Leaguers eager to reconquer their lost territory. Whether they get out of the border war in one piece is up for debate.

====[[Draconis Combine]]====
Ruled by House Kurita, the Draconis Combine is the obligatory Space Japan, in the sense that it is ''obligatory'' to be Japanese. It has large Arab and Scandinavian minorities who are legally required to be [[weeaboo]]s, with the country as a whole drawing on both the age of samurai and the militaristic Imperial Japan of the 1920s to 40s. The twelve-year-olds listed above, if they leave the FedSuns, will likely move to this weeaboo paradise with its delusional "fierce solo samurai warrior takes on all opponents Kurosawa Style" appeal, not realizing that lone mechs get [[rape|gang-banged]] by enemies who are teamed up like a pack of mechanical hyenas. Defended by weeaboos despite being responsible for the single most horrific massacre in human history during the First Succession War. For an alternate look into this supposed massacre, please read ''Did 52 million really die?'' In fact, they have a habit of doing this. “We defeated the mercenaries on this planet who have nothing to do with the general populace. Nuke everyone before we leave. Why? Uhhhh...do we really need a reason? <s>they’re not our enemies or anything, but [[Lulz|murder is fun]]</s> SCORCHED EARTH TACTICS! Preventing enemies from using the planet’s populace or resources against us is a valid strategy!”

Like everyone else in the Inner Sphere, the Draconis Combine is a warmongering, autocratic empire ruled with an iron fist that wants to take over the galaxy. Unlike everyone else in the Inner Sphere, they actually admit it. They're the only successor state that makes absolutely no pretenses of being a democracy, with the Coordinator of Worlds being treated as a divinely anointed absolute monarch who is the sole legitimate ruler of all humanity. They were the first to start shit after the Star League collapsed, with the Coordinator declaring himself the new First Lord and launching an invasion of the Federated Suns that eventually wound up getting him killed on Kentares IV, prompting his son to launch the aforementioned massacre. They've been the mortal enemies of the Federated Suns ever since.

Similar to the Davions and their love of autocannons and the Steiners and their love of everything heavy and assault, Kuritans are really, really into PPCs (Particle Projector Cannons), mainly because they're dirt poor and [[Lasgun]]s are cheaper than bullets. If there is a mech that can possibly mount a PPC, the Dracs will put one on it. For instance, see the ''Catapult'': a 65-ton long-range fire support mech intended for indirect fire using the Long Range Missle (LRM) racks in its "ears". Almost every variant of the ''Catapult'' is centered around these LRM racks with a few minor backup weapons. They are a reliable, battle-tested design that no commander in their right mind would attempt to 'fix', because isn't broken... except in the eyes of House Kurita. Once the Combine got their hands on it those ears were replaced with two PPCs for direct fire support and two machine guns for <s>civilian massacres</s> INFANTRY DETERRENTS.

Kuritans were also [[Fail|involved in the worst Battletech novel ever written]], wherein a ship of theirs was lost in time and space, and [[what|found giant]], [[Kroot|alien, sentient chickens]]. Far Country is a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6zQ6ZqEqg0 Shamefur Dispray]! and pretty much serves as the only time aliens are actually mentioned in the BattleTech universe.

====[[Capellan Confederation]]====
Culturally, Space China and Space Russia. Politically, Space North Korea. The Confederation was originally founded when several minor states in the Capellan Zone who were sick of the Federated Suns trying to "liberate" them joined together, [[lolwut|bombed their own capital of Capella to make a point]], and fought the Davions off. Secure in this victory, they then proceeded to never win a war ever again. Sounds like their rulers were evil after all.

Citizens of the Capellan Confederation enjoy probably the highest standard of living of any commoner in the Inner Sphere, with an extensive, cradle-to-grave welfare system and the best education and health care the state can provide. [[Grimdark|*Non*-citizens of the Capellan Confederation, known as "Servitors", are basically slaves.]] Becoming a citizen requires you to provide a certain amount of service to the state by the age of seventeen, and citizenship can be removed as punishment for disloyalty. Even those who aren't unfortunate enough to be Servitors basically have their lives decided for them by the Capellan caste system and the government's ability to tell them that they have to move to a new planet and take up a new career at any given moment. The writers might have eventually gotten the note on how pointless this was because under chancellor Sun-Tzu (No, really) Liao in 3052 the servitors were awarded more rights, their quasi slavery condition abolished and they were given better chances at gaining citizenship, boosting Sun-Tzu's popularity in the process. Just as planned.

The Confederation is run by a Chancellor, who's supposed to be elected by the nobility but in reality is pretty much always the head of House Liao. This is rather unfortunate, since the Liaos have a noticeable tendency towards being batshit fucking insane ''even by Inner Sphere nobility standards''. They claim descent from Elias Liao, who was either a persecuted revolutionary philosopher (if you ask a Capellan) or a psychopathic nuclear terrorist (if you ask anyone else). The main family line births a homicidal maniac at least every other generation, e.g. Kali Liao, who became the leader of a cyborg death cult with a taste for mass nerve-gas attacks. At one point, they decided that having a regular military just wasn't cool enough for them and created the Warrior Houses, a bunch of weird pseudo-religious warrior cults that only answer to the Chancellor.

Since the Capellans have lost basically every war they've ever fought and live right next to the Federated Suns, they've become the designated "sneaky" faction, focusing on guerrilla warfare and covert operations. They go for stealth and electronic warfare the way the Davions go for autocannons, best exemplified by their iconic Raven electronic warfare 'Mech (which, depending on the model, actually looks like a bird; weird but cool). After the Clan Invasion and FedCom Civil War, they acquired a taste for the newly-developed Plasma weapons. Got the absolute shit beat out of them by the Federated Commonwealth during the Fourth Succession War, got revenge when the Commonwealth tore itself apart a few decades later.

====[[ComStar]]====
Imagine a cross between the medieval Catholic Church and Comcast, and you have ComStar. During the Star League Civil War, the network of Hyperpulse Generators that the Star League had built for faster-than-light communications was in ruins, and the one thing that the Great Houses could agree on was that ''somebody'' had to fix all their space phones right fucking now. They named Jerome Blake, the highest-ranking HPG network official still alive, as Minister of Communications, which, since they didn't name any other ministers, basically put him in charge of Terra. As the Star League collapsed, Blake bummed some soldiers off of Kerensky, got the Successor States to agree that the space phones were important and they should therefore respect ComStar's neutrality, and then seized complete control of Terra in a lightning-fast coup, revealing that that neutrality had some teeth.

After Blake died, ComStar quickly turned into a quasi-mystical and religious organization, whose stated purpose was to preserve human knowledge in the dark ages of the Succession Wars, a goal they attempted to fulfill by assassinating every scientist who wouldn't work for them and starting the Second Succession War practically the moment the first one ended. Things started to spiral out of control for them after the Helm Memory Core was leaked and suddenly everyone was able to figure out how Lostech worked again, and then things got even ''worse'' when the Clans showed up.

ComStar is also famous for introducing the ComStar Bill (C-bill) as a standard galactic currency. Rather than being backed by material goods, each C-bill is backed by ComStar's faster than light message delivery service: One C-bill will guarantee one millisecond of data transmission, enough for a few pages of bare text or a small image, with larger transmissions costing more, and with additional fees for higher priority and the like. The value of the various Great House currencies can be weighed against their worth in C-bills which allows for currency exchange on a galactic scale. The C-bill is the primary way that mercenaries are paid and in turn pay for goods and services, and thus the most common currency encountered by players. Post Jihad, Comstar was neutered of its armed forces and subject to a hostile takeover by Clan Sea Fox (outside of the universe, at least one of the game developers had a hate boner against Comstar's OP status and gave their more powerful components the ax, courtesy of Blakist nukes).

====Minor Powers====
*'''[[Free Rasalhague Republic]]''': Space Norse/Vikings. They were a part of the Draconis Combine along the Lyran border, until the formation of the Federated Commonwealth meant that Kurita was about to have ''two'' borders for Hanse Davion to attack them from, so he granted them their independence as a buffer state. May have been awesome. If you're wondering why we write of them in the past tense refer to: ''Clan Invasion, Why Not Get in the Way of One'' (Third Publishing of Liao, COMSTAR ISBN 474-Alpha-467-Upsilon-345). They later join up with the Ghost Bears and become the Rasalhague Dominion. They are awesome because now we have Viking clanners. One of their aerospace pilots literally stopped the Clan invasion dead for an entire year because she banzai'd her fighter into a Clan warship and killed the ilKhan.
*'''[[Word of Blake]]''': An ultra-reactionary splinter faction of ComStar that got butthurt after ComStar ditched all the pseudo-religious bullshit. Broke away and launched an all-out jihad (''yes, they actually used that word'') on literally everyone shortly after the Federated Commonwealth Civil War came to an end. Made liberal use of weapons of mass destruction and rendered several entire planets uninhabitable. Fond of genocide, re-education camps, unstable technology, and mass murder. As a result, they were eventually crushed as a result of pissing off the entire fucking universe, but not before undoing a lot of the technological progress that had been made after the [[Clan Invasion]] (apparently by magic, as not only was that knowledge now universally available, but so were copies of the Helm Memory Core...and destroying some factories doesn’t make technology go away). Basically used by the publishers to reset the average technology level of the game due to a lot of players feeling it was advancing too far and getting away from the quasi-feudal feel of earlier editions (forgetting that quasi-feudalism is a governing method, the technology level has nothing to do with it). Ironically enough, their mechs were more streamlined and featured a lot more experimental technologies for people who would eventually blow the entire game setting back to the quasi-iron age. Officially, they were all supposedly killed after the Jihad for genocide. Recently hinted by a terminally ill Stone to still be around and responsible for the HPG network being taken out as a taunt against ilKhan Alaric before being killed off in bed.
*'''The [[Republic of the Sphere]]''': Established by an individual calling himself Devlin Stone, who mysteriously surfaced at some point during the Blakefag Jihad, and helped pull the galaxy out that colossal clusterfuck through a series of successful military campaigns. Upon the Jihad's defeat, Stone met with ComStar Precentor Martial Victor Ian Steiner-Davion and laid out a philosophy which Victor would privately describe as ''militant socialism keyed to altruism''; Officials and authorities would have their assets placed in a blind trust. Public service would be rewarded. Greed and corruption would be punished. All weapons would be placed under government control. [[Just As Planned|Surprisingly, it worked]], at least for a time, ushering in a new era of peace for the core worlds. However, after ruling as Exarch of the Republic for a while, Devlin Stone stepped down and shortly there after disappeared, vowing to [[Sigmar|return when he was needed most]]. It didn't take long before everything went to shit again and was plunged into chaos when the interstellar communication network was sabotaged. Was gangbanged by a combination of separatist factions, the Capellans, and Clan Jade Falcon before finally saying FUCK IT and retreating back to Terra. All while somehow using Word of Blake HPG disruption tech to prevent hyperspace jumps into their core territory. They also recently developed a taste for Tripod Mechs (which are the only modern Mech that can exceed Assault Mechs in terms of tonnage, firepower, and armor but at the cost of requiring an additional gunner and engineer onboard to shoot and monitor the machine's vitals) while also hybridizing Clan & IS technology (culminating with extremely powerful but unstable weapons). <strike>''You guys realize Stone is the [[Emperor]], right? Right?''</strike> None of this makes sense, of course, as the HPG network is not only extremely well and fanatically protected by actual fanatics, but also is so large it can’t really be sabotaged. Except by magically competent Deus ex Machina mooks, apparently. Friendly clans could also build their own for the Republic’s use. Except newly built HPGs also failed somehow. Black Boxes became advanced enough that HPGs were nearly pointless, though, making the whole “Dark Age” thing really...dumb. And if someone had the sense to build building-sized Black Boxes instead of briefcase-sized, the HPGs would have a perfect backup. But common sense in Battletech is [[heresy]] just like in any good universe. Besides that, the eyes on anyone with power to prevent corruption would stop factions from selling out the Republic and the senators would not have been able to sponsor military officers into becoming Paladins because that is extremely corrupt and would not have been allowed or tolerated. Even if such a plot succeeded, there would be no leverage for the senators to get those paladins to do what they wanted. And the Capellans are target practice, sudden separatism makes no sense when they were fine until this point under numerous oppressive regimes, and Clan Jade Falcon by itself would have been crushed and a team up of clans would have sent the whole Inner Sphere into a clan-killing frenzy panic mode. Come the latest novels in 2021, and the Republic and it's founder were reduced to a caricature of fall of the III Reich (complete with a senile leader giving contradictory orders and throwing their best units at the worst faction so the best faction can pick up the pieces). While many of their leaders and fighters survived, it's an open question of whether they cooperate with the ilClan or revolt later down the line.
** '''Northwind Highlanders''': A band of Scottish mercenaries hailing from the planet Northwind. Once upon a time they were a formal Royal Guard unit for House Cameron in the SLDF but they went free agent when the Star League fell apart, after which they mostly worked for House Liao. They got a surprise happy blakesday party that destroyed their HPG and wiped out their aerofighters but otherwise they survived and joined the Republic in 3081. With the Fall of the Republic, they were forced to surrender with their leader loaned as a liaison from the IlClan to the Jade Falcons; which is notable due to both factions historically and currently originating from, the Black Watch, elite SLDF units working as bodyguards for the First Lord of the Star League and nearly prevented the [[Amaris Civil War]].
* '''[[The Periphery]]''': The collection of non-successor states on the edges of the Inner Sphere. They were brought into the Star League by force and are still kinda sore about it, mostly because they nearly got blasted back to the Stone Age and never quite got their technology back up. The most important entities (outside of the Clans) are the Periphery powers bordering the Great Houses in the Inner Sphere while the rest is marked as the Deep Periphery and is as isolated from civilization as the Arctic Circle from the rest of civilization.
**'''[[Taurian Concordate]]''': A Periphery nation bordering the Federated Suns and Cappellan Confederation. Has an axe to grind against the Federated Suns and claims they’re much more dedicated to freedom and liberty than the Davions. Think the United States right after 9/11, all of the good and the bad, and you have a good idea of the culture. Just replace paranoia about Islam with paranoid about the Federated Suns, including the fact that the overwhelming majority of who they're paranoid couldn't given any less of a shit about them. Also add the IRA, their fanatical hatred of the British, and war crime tendencies.
**'''Marian Hegemony''': A bandit kingdom bordering the Lyrans and Free Worlds League that decided to become the Roman Empire IN SPACE. A shadier version of the [[Severan Dominate]] from 40k.
**'''[[Magistracy of Canopus]]''': A hedonistic matriarchy bordering the Free Worlds League. A nation of cybernetic catgirls, whose largest export is pornography. No, really. We're serious. Well they're not all cybernetic catgirls but they're there if you want them, and pornography and the tourist industry makes up a large chunk of their economy. Also Medical research and technology, most likely to treat all the STDs you get from your vacation to Space Vegas. Also known for having a significant religious conservatives population as they have an open-door refugee policy.
**'''[[Outworlds Alliance]]''': A backwater state near the Federated Suns and Draconis Combine. Was the Periphery-est of the Periphery states until Clan Snow Raven moved in and formed the '''Raven Alliance'''.
**'''Hanseatic League''': A mercantile alliance of traders descended from Lyran refugees fleeing economic declines during the Third Succession War, their nation is between the Clan Homeworlds and Lyran Space. They liked to pretend to be a neutral third party interested in trade of goods and information while also subjecting neighboring planets to debt trap diplomacy with armed merchant caravans. Also liked to play both sides against each other in any prolonged war among their neighbors to increase profits and soften them up for potential annexation (such as between Nueva Castille and the Umayyad Caliphate). Unfortunately, they were eventually conquered by Clan Goliath Scorpion (with help from their newfound Castilian and Umayyad citizens) and merged into their new Scorpion Empire some time in the Dark Age.
*'''Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission''': An independent group that certifies and provides force rankings for various [[Mercenaries (Battletech)|mercenary groups]]. At least three Mech Warrior games are focused on the mercs as it allows writers more leeway and less chance to screw up the canon.
**'''Kell Hounds''': A merc company headed by Morgan Kell. His son Phelan was captured by Clan Wolf when the Clan Invasion first began, and by the end was running the Clan until it split. Took in Phelan and the Exiled Wolves afterwards. Generally, are tough but cool guys all around. Like the Exiled Wolves, they got a massive "kill on sight" target painted on their back after the omnicidal Jade Falcon Khan got annoyed with their feisty resistance against her campaign into Lyran Territory. Once the Jade Falcons scrambled the bulk of their military forces to Terra, the Kell Hounds were able to retake their homeworld when the Jade Falcon occupation zone and Lyran northernmost territories balkanized from the power vacuum. On the other hand, their commander has a big grudge against the Steiners for leaving them out to dry.
**'''Grey Death Legion''': Mercenary group who were famous for finding and distributing the Helm Core, which allowed the Inner Sphere to regain technology formerly lost during the Succession Wars. Generally an author's favorite in the books. Got destroyed during the Blake Jihad. And then got resurrected once the northern Lyran provinces balkanized.
**'''Wolf's Dragoons''': A bunch of Clan Wolf advance scouts disguised as a mercenary group. Came to the Inner Sphere with a ton of mechs that the Clans considered outdated but hadn't been seen in the Successor States in centuries and were considered Lostech... Which should have tipped the Great Houses off that these guys might be bad juju. Instead of providing intel to the Clans for their invasion, Wolf's Dragoons pulled a fast one and tried to prepare the Inner Sphere for war with the Clans. They are generally pretty awesome guys, even if part of that awesomeness is because they get a ton of attention in the fluff due to the writers' obsession with anything related to Clan Wolf. They got screwed pretty badly during the Blake Jihad when the nutjobs assaulted Outreach. By Dark Age they are slowly recovering with help from the Kell Hounds. Recent novellas have the Wolves convince them to join them on Terra once it's conquered to prevent the genocidal Jade Falcons from becoming the IlClan. Unfortunately, latest novels also made them become meatshields used by the Wolf Khan to expend the Turquoise Turkeys' ammo supplies while being reduced to a fraction of their strength. Naturally, in a repeat of their history against Kurita, they [[Book of Grudges|swore]] an oath to stand against the Wolves permanently.

===[[The Clans]]===
Laughable strategic and logistical ability and basically have no plan when they do something. But God have mercy on you if they're coming your way. 'Cus you're '''''fucked'''''. These guys reside in the [[Deep Periphery]] and tried to leave well enough alone with the Spheroid barbarians their SLDF ancestors disowned until Space AT&T knocked on their front door like an unsolicited salesman. The resulting "GTFO my lawn" response naturally made the Innner Sphere soil their pants. Each clan is named after an animal, and yes those are the animal's full names.

* Clan Blood Spirit: The smallest clan. Noted for having the toughest training, favored Battle Armor, and had no official allies after starting off idealistic but then becoming jaded grudge-holders. :( Despite above comment, not ACTUALLY an animal, but named for the warrior spirit that united the forces under Kerensky.
* Clan Burrock: The only clan to support the Dark Caste. Liked picking on the Blood Spirits before they were absorbed by Clan Star Adder.
* Clan Cloud Cobra: The Religious types. Loved aerospace fighters and jump jets. Obsessed with collecting genetic bloodlines other clans don't want.
* Clan Coyote: Native Americans in Space. Also like to scheme too much for their own good. Known for creating a shit ton of tech (unlike [[Adeptus Mechanicus|some people]] on Mars...)
* [[Clan Diamond Shark]]: Used to be called Sea Fox until Snow Raven killed their namesake (with their current one) the only clan that views the merchant caste as equal to their warrior one. Later brought back the Sea Fox and changed their name back. The only clan to allow all castes to vote, making them arguably a genuinely democratic republic.
* Clan Fire Mandrill: The clan whose gimmick was to always have a few subfactions to foster internal competition. At first it was manageable and it improved the clan, but then the factionalism snowballed into more than 10 mini-subfactions which made the whole clan a laughing stock among the clans.
* Clan Ghost Bear: The only clan to be founded by a married couple, as a result they're the only clan to still have normal family units. Much more protective of its civilian caste than the others. Nearly devoured the Free Rashalague Republic in the Clan Invasion, then merged with what was left after the Jihad. Went full blown good old fashion Viking Berserker when the Jihad nuked their civilians, attacking friend and foe alike in pure grief fueled murderous rage. Awesome.
* Clan Goliath Scorpion: Stoners with rose-colored nostalgia glasses. Also noted for elite marksmanship and ambush tactics. Likes to [[Blood Ravens|acquire artifacts]] [[Trazyn the Infinite|for cultural appreciation of the Star League]], sometimes with bad consequences down the line.
* Clan Hell's Horses: The only clan to think tanks are useful, often uses combined arms tactics rather than just spamming mechs. They have a hot rod flames color scheme. Extremely heavily focused on teamwork. Including teamwork between castes and between the clan and its conquered worlds. Which has led to very good relations both internally and externally. Probably the only Clan other than the Star Adders that locals might actually support over a "liberating" Inner Sphere force. ''Maybe''.
* Clan <strike>Temper Tantrum</strike> Ice Hellion: Speed freaks with a big ego. Their Khan seems to bitch every time their forces lose, which is often.
* [[Clan Jade Falcon]]: The spotlight stealing clan second only to the Wolves, with whom they have a fierce rivalry. Slightly less evil than the Jaguars.
* Clan Mongoose: Basically a footnote in clan history. Extremely aggressive, tend to attack everyone near them. [[Fail|Got their asses kicked by everyone else before being absorbed.]]
* Clan Nova Cat: The spiritual types, they decide their policy with visions, which 9 times out of 10 ends badly for them. Some of the best marksmen in the clans, often competed with Clan Goliath Scorpion. Joined Smoke Jaguar in attacking the Draconis Combine, then sided with the Combine right after everyone decided the Jags had to go. Eventually got destroyed during the Dark Ages for backing the wrong Kuritan royal in a civil war.
* Clan <strike>Chimney Kitten</strike> [[Clan Smoke Jaguar|Smoke Jaguar]]: Essentially super aggressive [[World Eaters]] trained to pilot mechs. Known to fuck shit up until their smaller numbers (due to infighting, shitting on their civilian castes and hating logistics) fucked them over in long campaign. Were eventually wiped out by the Inner Sphere counter-attack after they murdered an entire city from orbit. What goes around comes around. Recent ilClan lore had their descendants in the Fidelis sworn to the Wolf Khan in exchange for rebuilding their clan; [[What|despite]] their original [[Book of Grudges|hatred]] for letting the Second Star League annihilate them.
* Clan Snow Raven: The sinister & cunning space jockeys of the clans. Specialized in space combat and became BBFs with the Outworlds Alliance.
* Clan Spirit Cats: Offshoots of the Nova Cats after they were annihilated by the Combine.
* Clan Star Adder: Boring, but very, very practical, which benefited them a lot. They favor using assault mechs, and like to upgrade their lasers to heavy lasers. Living under them or as one of them is much more like real life. If you can do a job, you can have the job. Including a laborer wanting to be a warrior. Which ironically is the same approach that caused Clan Wolverine to be destroyed by Kerensky.
* Clan Steel Viper: Self righteous xenophobes who wanted to cooperate with the Inner Sphere but also treated freeborns like dirt, and then wondered why nobody liked them. Responsible for Clan genocide known as [[Skub|"The Wars of Reaving"]]. [[Fail|Got genocided in return.]]
* Clan Widowmaker: The hyper-aggressive types. Their first Khan held a grudge against the Wolverines and framed them before being killed with support from Nicholas. Widowmaker later got annihilated for accidentally killing Nicky. What was left of it, however, <strike>gave birth</strike> (lies Clanners aren't born, they're grown) to the most dangerous MechWarrior ever, Natasha Kerensky.
* Clan Wolf: The spotlight stealing Clan, courtesy of it being Kerensky's personal clan. Split up into two factions following the Refusal War.
** Crusader Wolves: The guys who want to continue the invasion of Inner Sphere. Wound up migrating from their original invasion corridor to Lyran/Marik space & formed a new & dangerous upstart state called the '''Wolf Empire.''' Later <strike>[[Mary Sue|surprise surprise]]</strike>, won against the Republic and Jade Falcons on Terra to become the ilClan of the Third Star League [[FAIL|despite the other factions refusing to recognize them for now]] outside of the former Republic’s officials, Jade Falcons, & the Smoke Jaguars that are all a shadow of their strength. Naturally lost most of their forces to take the top prize.
** Warden Wolf-in-Exile: The guys who want to defend Inner Sphere against the rest of the clans, who they think are a mockery of Kerensky's teachings. Like the Kell Hounds, they got a massive "kill on sight" target painted on their back after the omnicidal Jade Falcon Khan got annoyed with their feisty resistance against her campaign into Lyran Territory. Somehow got convinced to rejoin the Crusaders Wolves in revenge against the Jade Falcons despite the story never addressing the Crusader-Warden divide on treating Inner Sphere nations as subjects to be conquered and ruled from above or charges to be protected and educated from partnership. The “official” motive of seeking payback against the Jade Falcons for razing their civilian population centers and killing their cadet academies can only go so far until the Green Chickens got defeated.
* <strike>[[Clan Wolverine]]</strike> Not-Named Clan: Aggressive and independent minded, these guys pissed off Nicky to such extent that they were annihilated after the vengeful Widowmaker Khan framed them of detonating nukes on civilians and another Clan’s genetic repository after the Wolverines seceded from the Clans. Basically, they did the caste thing but thought "Hey, why not let people do what they're best at?" and that sort of thing. It pissed off crazy pants ilKhan Kerensky because this approach made them more successful than all the other clans, proving his method was actually not the best way. Some survivors were able to flee as the '''Minnesota Tribe''' but they've been never heard from publicly since (though there are hints that they're around in the Deep Periphery in some recent novels and short stories). [[What|There are many theories about them returning to Inner Sphere and taking over it as shadow masterminds in order to destroy the clans.]]

===[[Wars of Reaving]]===
[[Advancing the Storyline|Fed up with having to write more stuff about clans nobody cares about]], a bunch of clans were wiped out after the Jihad, or driven out of clan territory. While the in-story explanation is that a butthurt ilKhan decided it was time to make a powerplay after not having won anything out of the Inner Sphere Invasion, everyone knows that there were several clans that had no discernable effect on the game.
*'''''Annihilated or Absorbed:'''''
**Blood Spirit: Got wiped out for using civilian militias which "isn't clan-like" and [[Bullshit|marked for annihilation for letting people fight for their homes instead of cooperating with their new leaders as Clan honor dictates.]] As well as using [[Planetary Defense Force|en-mass civilian militias]] to attack their enemies.
**Burrock: Tried to re-establish themselves after being absorbed, got defeated.
**Fire Mandrill: Too fractured to fight back effectively during the Wars of Reaving. What was left of them got absorbed by the Goliath Scorpions and other Homeworld Clans
**Ice Hellion: [[Fail|Killed themselves by trying to steal Jade Falcon and Hell's Horses territory.]] The remaining survivors joined Goliath Scorpion.
**Steel Viper: Took over the Clan Homeworlds and gave everyone free reign to remove the “taint” of the Invader Clans by any means necessary. Forgot that they themselves were an Invader Clan.
**Nova Cat: The main Clan was destroyed by the Draconis Combine for being on the losing side of a civil war. the majority of the survivors were led by a warrior-mystic who had a vision that the Clan as whole would go extinct if he didn't lead some like minded fellows away elsewhere before they were indeed wiped out and they would travel to a part of the former Free Worlds League to set up shop there as the Spirit Cats.
*'''''Exiled or Abjured:''''' These clans were forced out of the Clan Homeworlds on the pretense of being "corrupted" by Inner Sphere influences. Some later formed the '''Council of Six Clans''', representing the clans that now exist in the Inner Sphere.
**Ghost Bears: Banished to the Inner Sphere and eventually founded the '''Rasalhague Dominion.''' Joined the Council.
**Goliath Scorpion: Originally sided with the Homeworld Clans to drive the Invader Clans out of the Kerensky Cluster. Then was censured and abjured for absorbing Clan Ice Hellion Warriors and Star League descended mercenaries from Eridani Light Horse in their Clan eugenics program without permission. Ran away and conquered Nueva Castile and Umayyads (Spaniards vs. Arabs IN SPACE) in the Deep Periphery, forming '''Escorpion Imperio.''' By the eve of the Dark Age, they had also conquered their neighbors to the south, the Hanseatic League, and founded a new major Periphery power known as the '''Scorpion Empire''' that's second only to the Homeworld Clans as a military power in the Periphery.
**Hell's Horses: Stole some of Clan Wolf's territory in the Inner Sphere, and end up getting banished from the Clan Homeworlds. Developed a taste for experimenting with QuadVee Mechs (which can convert from a ground combat vehicle into a Quad Mech while also requiring a dedicated gunner). Joined the Council.
**Jade Falcon: Banished to the Inner Sphere and tried to conquer Terra but failed. Still rules the parts of the Inner Sphere they conquered during the Clan Invasion. Replaced the Smoke Jaguars as the most vicious clan under their latest Khan (who's willing to do anything to kill her enemies). Joined the Council. Later got most of their forces wiped out from omnicidal fighting against the Republic, Dragoons, and Wolves on Terra. Said genocidal Khan got killed off and replaced with a pragmatic reformer who agreed to follow the Wolf IlKhan in exchange for the Turquoise Turkeys becoming the IlKhan's body guards.
**Sea Fox/Diamond Shark: Ended up in what's left of the Free Worlds League. Split up into semi-independent merchant fleets and are now a collection of nomadic "Khanates" that sail the starlanes of the Inner Sphere. Joined the Council, but also joined the FWL as a member state. In the meantime, managed to bring the Sea Fox back from extinction, and changed back to their old name.
**Smoke Jaguar: Some of them showed up as super-secret Clanner loyalists called '''Fidelis''' to the Republic of the Sphere. More practical minded than their grandparents but just as likely to go [[rip and tear|berserk]] when fighting any clan warriors for their perceived betrayal. Still in the Fortress Republic. A scant few are found hiding in the Deep Periphery with the few warships that they still had. Later somehow let go of their grudge to pledge allegiance to the Wolve Khan in exchange for reforming their Clan under the IlKhan's protection.
**Snow Raven: Ran away and merged with the Outworlds Alliance in the Periphery, forming the '''Raven Alliance.''' Joined the Council.
**Spirit Cat: What's left of Nova Cats, allied with the Free Worlds League and formed an enclave in their territory with sponsorship from House Marik and Clan Sea Fox.
**Wolf: Splintered into several factions. Basically conquered the central and coreward territories of Lyran Alliance under the '''Wolf Empire.''' Making the Steiners have a bigger headache, their Khan, Katrina Steiner's descendant, claimed the mantle of Archon through her bloodline. Wolves-in-Exile refuse to join and are doing their own thing. Clan Wolf-Alliance joined the Council. “Katrina Steiner’s descendant” is in fact a Trueborn Clanner that Katherine Steiner-Davion had made using both her own genetic material and Victor Steiner-Davion’s, because regular incest just wasn’t crazy enough for her. Later became IlKhan once the two halves merged back together <strike>naturally</strike>.
*'''''Home Clans:''''' Theses clans still hold territory in the Clan Homeworlds and consider themselves "True Clans."
**Cloud Cobra: Still around.
**Coyote: Sneaky bastards. Got their hands on the genetic material of one of Clan Wolves's founders. Outside of the universe, unreliable rumors hint that said founder may have been the last known descendant of House Cameron.
**Star Adder: TOP DOG. Their Khan was the one who stopped the psycho Steel Viper ilKhan by dint of beating his head inside out with the nearest handy blunt object.
**Stone Lions: Made from the Hell's Horses who were left in the Clan Homeworlds and didn't get exiled.

So basically there are now ten Clans: The six Spheroid Clans, and the four Home Clans. The rest are either dead, formed hybrid societies, or are even more minor than before and thus save the writers from some hard work in upcoming TROs.

==The Appeal of Battletech==
First and most obvious, giant stompy Battlemechs bristling with guns duking it out is cool. But despite that, Battletech is in general a more grounded and human setting. You don't have warp daemons, God Emperors, energy forces or psionic powers in Battletech or giant Space Cathedrals and machines that work better when people pray to them. Nor does it have artificial gravity, shields, sapient aliens, serious transhumanism, dyson spheres, general AI and other more wild science fiction ideas. While it does go into some suspense of belief in technology such as KF-FTL drive and HPG-FTL communications, most of the technology is still grounded within the realm of plausible belief. Society-wise, it doesn't go into the speculation on how civilization may come into conflict with divergent ideals or extraterrestrial life, instead you have human people like you and me struggling in a hostile universe where the most dangerous thing is often another human being under another flag. Not that the setting lacks for variety; the main factions are very well developed with their own distinct motivations, even if they do sometimes tend to lean into stereotypes. Battletech is for people who read [[Dune]] and find the idea of the Atreides, Harkonnens, Corinos and the other Great Houses of the Landsraad with their conflicts and their power plays to be far more interesting than what happened after Paul took over. Some others also consider it similar to a teen rated version of [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Game of Thrones]] in space (but with mechs and sci fi tactics in place of mythical creatures and gore).

Battletech is one of the more morally grey settings out there. Moreso than many Grimdark settings where it's a matter of [[Imperium of Man|nasty jerks]] vs [[Chaos|literal demons]]. While there are a few factions which are better or worse than others on the whole ([[Magistracy of Canopus]] vs [[Clan Smoke Jaguar]]) all of the factions have their share of virtue and vice, heroes and villains. Good people can come up from the Nobility of the Federated Suns, Citizens of the Capellan Confederation or the Iron Wombs of The Clans, as can a lot real nasty bastards. In that regard, this is a rather tragic universe. In BattleTech nobody is corrupted by Chaos or seduced by the Dark Side. Instead humanity took to the stars and flourished, only to be brought low because their leaders were in the end just human with human failings.

As far as Mecha design goes, Battletech designs run the gamut from box-on-legs (Awesome, Dragon, etc), to egg-on-legs (Catapult, Marauder, etc), through to very polished designs (which were mostly stolen from Japanese anime shows). Wrong, they hired a third party artist who sold his designs to them and the other guys. Some of the later work, post-FASA, could be quite smooth, to the point of organic looking. As such, BattleTech is a pastiche of various art styles and design philosophies, covering the range of reactions from "cool-but-impractical", to "eh, practical-and-possible", and well out into the area that will make your engineering professor have a mental fit.

Lastly from a hobbyist perspective, BattleTech tries to make itself as accessable as possible. It's set up more like a [[board game]] than a miniatures wargame. The basic rules are free online, and you're allowed to represent a mech with anything you can fit in the hex grid — including paper cutouts, so you can pick up and play with anyone willing to learn the rules with you.

==Mechanics==
[[Image:Group-Plastic-Miniatures.jpg|thumb|right|The standard use of hexmaps renders the purchase of miniatures optional, though miniatures rules for the game are available.]]
[[Image:Blankrecordsheet.jpg|thumb|right|Record sheets are one of ''BattleTechs''' greatest blessings and curses.]]
The basic mechanic is simple. Two six-sided dice are used, with a to-hit (Equal or greater to) system. Initiative is interlaced, with the loser moving first and the winner able to react. All weapons damage is technically done at the same time, and therefore who shoots first is insignificant, although the order in which weapons fire from any given unit resolves is important. Larger weapons can scrub off large quantities of ablative armor, while smaller multi-hit weapons stand a better chance of forcing critical hits once a location is damaged. If you get hit, you mark off the weapons damage rating from your armor. If the shot penetrates your armor, you roll potential criticals. Firing weapons and moving about generates heat, which you must keep down to keep your 'Mech working properly.

Unlike games such as ''[[Warhammer]]'', where many units are either killed on the first shot or left unscathed, and little information is recorded, ''BattleTech'' uses record sheets to mark off each 'Mech's cumulative damage, ammunition, pilot status, and heat. Also, there are hit locations, so limbs can be blown off. The record sheets allow for effects that are more detailed, but this also increases the overall playtime. Although expert players can get through matches just as fast as players of other games of more or less equal size, new players often find that the game plays slowly. This is usually due to the time spent referencing hit-location tables, critical effects, etc. For new players, 2V2 matches are best, with 4V4 matches being the "cap", in order to have games that do not take excessively long. More experienced players can run games of 12v12 or larger in an afternoon, though these will often be multi-player games in which each ''player'' controls only a handful of 'Mechs.

One of the biggest appeals of ''BattleTech'' is that all of its units are made with a predefined set of rules. Custom designs are fully possible, though they are not likely to be welcome in tournament matches or pick-up games.

''BattleTech'' uses a build system based on 'Mech tonnage. You start with a Chassis limit, from 20-100 tons. You then determine engine size based on how fast you want your 'Mech to be (how many hexes you want it to be able to move per turn) you then allocate the remaining tonnage to control systems, weapons, ammo and armor. This method varies slightly depending on the technology of the chassis, but not overmuch. Though the system has recently been removed, there were previously three levels of technology.

'''Level 1''' (Now called "Introductory Tech") referred to early-era gameplay. Only the more rudimentary weapons and technologies are available, though the critical rules remain the same. This is the preferred level at which to learn, and is synonymous with the equipment available during the Succession Wars era. It is also the level of play made possible with starter boxes.

'''Level 2''' was Tournament-level gameplay. This introduced new equipment and electronics, as well as Clan technology (A more technologically advanced, but militant people). Though the rules are generally the same as those in level 1 gameplay, more-complicated equipment such as ECM, anti-missile systems, cluster munitions, etc. were better suited to more experienced players. It is the level of play made possible with separately-purchased rulebooks. Note that as the in-universe timeline advances, some more-advanced technology is designated "tournament-level", and several items that were Level 3 before the switch are also now "Tournament-Level".

'''Level 3''' referred to all advanced gameplay and equipment, including specialized gear from Historical manuals and the ''Solaris VII'' boxed sets/adventures. This has since been split out into "advanced", "experimental", and "era-specific" technology. This also included all equipment that was not listed in the core rulebooks. More complex rules were inserted in order to increase the realism and flexibility of the game. These include new weapons, new or altered terrain rules, artillery, alternate rules for major mechanics such as line-of-sight, etc. Though Level 3 rules included "prototype" equipment not printed in the core rulebooks, the standard rulebook in regards to Level 3 play was called ''Maxtech''. This has now been replaced by the Catalyst Games release of ''Tactical Operations'' and its sequels.

'''Advanced''' technology (not to be confused with "advanced rules" is covered largely in ''Tactical Operations'', and may be common but incorporates additional rules or restrictions that make it difficult to use without preparation.

'''Experimental''' tech is not mass-produced in-universe. The items are used in one-offs, prototype designs, and other weirdness. The ''Experimental Technical Readout'' series showcases this tech level, and most of the rules are in ''Tactical Operations'' or ''Strategic Operations''.

'''Era-specific''' technology incorporates advancements that were later abandoned in-verse. Usually these items were displaced by a superior version of the same technology, although there are some like the Listen-Kill missiles (which exploited a weakness in standard ECM protocols, later patched out) which are simply active for a few years and then abandoned once changing circumstances make them ineffective. Era-specific tech is the province of Historical sourcebooks, the ''Interstellar Operations'' rulebook, and a few campaign books.

==Spinoff Games==
Due to its popularity through the late 80s and early 90s, ''BattleTech'' spawned a multitude of spinoffs and expansion games.

'''[[Lost Worlds]]''' dueling books. NOVA adapted their melee dueling system to make four books for Battletech mecha. Each book has the opponent's view of the mech on each page, and a character sheet listing possible maneuvers. Since it used the same system as the rest of their books, you could have "20-ton Locust vs. skeleton with scimitar" duels.

'''Mechwarrior''' was a traditional pen-and-paper RPG set in the Battletech universe, using a ruleset similar to FASA's other hit RPG [[Shadowrun]]. It got second(1991) and third(1999) editions, then was later rebooted by Fanpro and Catalyst Games under the respective titles ''Classic Battletech RPG'' and '''Battletech: A Time of War''', likely to avoid conflation with WhizKids' ''Mechwarrior: Dark Age''. Also because by then the "Mechwarrior" title was fully associated with the video games.

'''AeroTech''' and '''BattleSpace''' were both games featuring Aerospace Fighters and DropShips/WarShips respectively, fighting in orbit before any of the action in the BattleTech game itself could begin. Both games eventually got absorbed into BattleTech's rules in the ''Total Warfare'' edition.

'''Battletroops''' was an infantry-scale game about the PBI who fight it out it in the shadow of Battlemechs. It later gained ''Clantroops'', an expansion pack that incorporated clan equipment as well as Battle Armor on both sides, but the game did not sell as well and the rules have since been abandoned.

'''Battleforce''' was a revision of '''BattleTech''', made in recognition of the fact that large-scale combat could not be effectively played out using the current system. Battleforce simplified each 'mech into a simple set of numbers, so that they could be clustered into units and fight over a much larger area. Battleforce 2, released about a decade later, also introduced planetary invasion maps and rules to go along with them. Although the maps are available in Map Compilation 2, the rules will be reprinted in the ''Strategic Operations'' and ''Interstellar Operations'' sourcebooks.

The '''Solaris VII Boxed set''' was made to simulate the fast-paced gladiatorial combat on the game's world of Solaris VII. It included new rules, new maps with special rules, new mechs, and supplements for roleplaying. Little known fact: some of the designs used in the original Solaris VII set were redesigns of the ''BattleTech'' 'mechs which were themselves copies of Japanese mechs! When the product tried to sell in Japan, half of the designs were already copyrighted by other well known anime companies, and the in-house designs were simply not "Japanese" enough for their tastes. Though the product itself flopped, its maps were reprinted and rereleased in 2004, as well as a complimentary up-to-date rulebook. Rules have since been standardized to match those of ''Classic Battletech'', but "Special Map rules" have been included.

The '''BattleTech Collectible Cardgame''' was produced by Wizards of the Coast in 1996, and ran until 1998. Though its popularity had begun to wane after the first core set, the release of the Pokemon card game was the nail in the coffin. The Battletech CCG hosted some very impressive artwork, though the game favored swarm-decks filled with plenty of weak, cheap 'mechs, and it's non-"Creature" cards were too weak to have an effective deck based around them. After five editions (''Battletech Limited''/''Unlimited'', ''Counterstrike'', ''Mercenaries'', ''Mechwarrior'', ''Arsenal'') Battletech CCG came out with ''Commander's Edition'', which picked some of the best cards of the last few editions (though it abandoned or revised some cards for inaccuracies or "brokenness") It had one final expansion, Crusade, which introduced the Steel Viper clan, though there were some prior cards that did reference the clan.

In July, 2013, Catalyst Game Labs released '''Alpha Strike''', a miniatures combat ruleset designed specifically to appeal to fans of Warhammer and Flames of War. It combined BattleForce statistics with improved miniatures rules. It's generally scoffed at by grognards but the only feasible way to play a regiment-sized battle in less than one lifetime.

==Video Games==
'''Official Games'''
* Crescent Hawk's Inception (Infocom, 1988)
* MechWarrior (Activision, 1989)
* Crescent Hawks' Revenge (Infocom, 1990)

* MechWarrior II (Activision, 1995)
* MechWarrior II: Mercernaries (Activision 1995)
** MechCommander (FASA, 1998)
* MechWarrior III (Microprose, 1999)
* MechWarrior IV: Vengeance (FASA/Microsoft, 2000), Black Knight (Microsoft, 2001), Mercenaries (Microsoft, 2002)
** These games had two expansions that gave more mechs, the Inner Sphere Mech Pack and Clan Mech Pack.
** MekTek released a legal port of Mercenaries, with both Mech Packs, new mechs, and battlesuits all inside, plus multiplayer support. Grab it from ModDB, abandonware sites, or your tracker of choice.
* Mechassault 1 (Day 1/Microsoft, 2002 for Xbox)
* Mechassault 2: Lone Wolf (Day 1/Microsoft, 2004 for Xbox)
* MechCommander II (FASA/Microsoft, 2001. The full game is offered by Microsoft for free [http://www.microsoft.com/en-ph/download/details.aspx?id=11457 here].)
* MechWarrior Online MMO (Smith & Tinker/Piranha Games, A F2P game first released on 2012 and currently out as a full product on Steam.)
* MechWarrior Tactical Command (Personae Studios, 2012?, [[Fail|for iPhone/iPad]]. After some uncertainty, MTC was fully released in the iTunes store. Too bad it sucks.)
* BattleTech (Harebrained Schemes, 2018) - funded through Kickstarter and headed up by Jordan Weisman)
** Turn-based strategy game, similar to the original tabletop game. Takes place during the Succession Wars, in a formerly empty area of the Periphery.
*MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries: (Piranha Games, 2019). Also takes place during the Succession Wars. Because nobody wants to take the time to portray the cluster fuck that is the Blake Jihad properly.

'''Unlicensed Games'''
* [http://www.mechlivinglegends.net Mechwarrior Living Legends] (Wandering Samurai/Clan Jade Wolf, 2011)

'''The following are free, homemade versions of Battletech:'''
* MechWar v1.12 (MS-DOS)
* [http://megamek.info/ MegaMek] (Java)
* BTMUX - ASCII-only MMO (anyone old enough to remember what a MUD is?) (any OS)<br/>You could play it in pure ASCII, or get [http://bt-thud.sourceforge.net/thud/ a graphical helper]<br/>Most of the existing ones are gone, but [http://frontiermux.com/news.php FrontierMUX] seems to still be alive.
* <strike>[http://neveron.com/ Neveron] (web-based mmo)</strike> [Taken offline on July 31st 2014]
* [http://www.titansofsteel.de/ Titans of Steel] (MS-Windows)

==Current State==
[[File:Never give up.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Little Urbie, the greatest of us all.]]
As of early 2022, Battletech is in the best state it's been in a long time. After sitting on the property for close to a decade without doing anything, Catalyst has used Kickstarter to fund a series of plastic mech sculpts. Lots of this was enabled by finally resolving the legal dispute with Harmony Gold on the Unseen, but the end result is that, for the first time ever, a wide range of high quality plastic mech miniatures are legitimately available. There's a "dip your toe" style starter kit with the Beginner Box, the true starter kit in Battletech: A Game of Armored Combat, and another for the clans with Clan Invasion. Beyond those, there's a total of twenty different "Force Packs" available, each having a randomized set of 4-6 mechs centered on a theme of some sort. Since you only need about one Force Pack's worth of mechs to play at all, ease of starting the game is definitely one of Battletech's major virtues now.

However, the year 2022 has seen some [[Skub|controversies]]. Some are mundane such as new novels, rule books, and promised miniatures being delayed repeatedly (it didn’t help that Catalyst Games Labs is mainly a publishing company that needs to outsource miniature manufacturing to barely keep up with demand). Others are more [[Derp|awkward]] such as CGL’s game developers being caught up with picking sides between [[SJW|angry activist fans and normies]] on one hand and [[/pol/|decades-old IP developers with alternate takes on history]] on the other. Another includes [[That guy|cracking down]] on forums and groups seeking to raise money under the BattleTech label on Patreon. That, and deciding to roll up the [[Nazi|Rommel tank]] into the related [[What|Patton tank]] before TPTB locked up the forum comments on the BG Battletech website has left fans with uncomfortable mixed opinions. For all people’s [[Meme|meming]] of jumping ship to Battletech from 40k over GW’s antics, the grass now seems to be just as patchy on the other side of the fence.

===MechWarrior Online===
[http://mwomercs.com/ Mechwarrior Online] has, as of this writing, been running for a decade and is still receiving new content. A competitive sim-shooter, Mechwarrior Online has probably been a commercial success and helped get at least some people into the hobby, but its main virtue was as a source of redesigned mechs. 3D prints of models from MWO are easily found on Etsy, providing modern looks for mechs that CGL hasn't gotten around to resculpting yet.

===Battletech 2018===
Harebrained Schemes announced their return to Kickstarter in fall 2015 in order to fund [http://battletechgame.com/ Battletech], a turn based tactics game featuring RPG mechanics for Mechs and MechWarriors. The final result was a very respectable strategy game - you play as a mercenary company commander in the year 3025, starting with a patchy collection of low grade mechs and keeping your aging DropShip from falling apart around you. Gameplay is fairly close to the tabletop but not an exact recreation. The campaign follows a power struggle for control of the Aurigan Reach, a region of mostly unimportant space at the rimward end of the map, between the Magistracy of Canopus and the Taurian Concordat. The game was followed up by three DLCs - Flashpoint, which added a series of mini-campaigns of 2-3 missions each, most of them tying into Battletech canon, Urban Warfare, which naturally added urban environments, and Heavy Metal, which added more mechs and a series of flashpoint campaigns surrounding the crash-site of a lost Star League era JumpShip with [[Clan Wolverine|obscured origins]]. Overall, Battletech 2018 is probably the standout Battletech game of the 2010s and a great strategy game in its own right. Even cooler, the events, planets, characters, etc. of the game (though not the game itself exactly) were canonized by Catalyst Games Lab in a tabletop rulebook/sourcebook, called ''House Arano (The Aurigan Coalition)'', which was written by HBS's Andrew McIntosh and Kiva Maginn.

Several fan-made mod packs (notably [https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech/mods/79/ RogueTech] and [https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech/mods/452/ BattleTech Advanced 3062]) have been produced which significantly extend the life of the vanilla game. These mods introduce many new factions, dozens of new 'Mechs and tanks, hundreds of new pieces of 'Mech equipment, a far larger star-map sandbox to play in, and far more depth to the 'Mech customization system as well as many quality of life changes. RogueTech in particular attempts to bring the game more in line with the tabletop experience and offers a much higher degree of gameplay complexity compared to vanilla Battletech.

===Mercenaries 5===
Oof. Well, they gave it a shot. After over a decade since the last Mechwarrior game, Mechwarrior 5 was released and it was...kind of a flop. Repetitive missions and buggy AI were the primary issues, and the post-launch DLCs and bug fixes only did so much to help. As of this writing, mod support has been added, so the fans might make MW5 worth it at some point...but for now, don't bother.

As of 2022, the game is now playable with all of the DLC. Notably, MW5 has incorporated melee combat in free updates, and is adding melee weapons with the next DLC. In hindsight, it's rather jarring realizing that we have been playing giant robot games without the ability to rock 'em and sock 'em. Melee better fucking get added to MWO to balance the all-powerful lights against the heavies and assaults they so often hard-counter.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01cCX49PAbI Also has a ridiculously awesome main menu theme.]

==Alien Life==
BattleTech is unusual among sci fi wargames in having humans as the only notable sapient species. Alien life exists aplenty - but it consists entirely of plants and dumb animals. Some sources have hinted at questionably sapient cavemen, but humans are the only species in Battletech canon to master agriculture, much less space travel. There is one possibly canon exception, however.

The Tetatae are tribal bird people armed with spears who inhabit a Jungle World. They show up in a far-off world in uncharted space populated with some stranded humans from the Draconis Combine. The inclusion of sapient species was such a [[Rage|controversial]] [[Fail|action]] that the novel introducing them, Far Country, was promptly ignored by both the lore developers and fans ever since it came out. The Tetatae are only even reached through a hyperspace engine failure that can't be reliably reproduced. It's unclear whether their planet is in some far off section of the galaxy or another, but characters in the novel speculate that they may be in a different universe entirely. Opinion differs on how canon Far Country and the Tetatae are, with some saying they're canon but unreachable and can't affect the rest of Battletech, while others claim Far Country exists as an in-universe TV show.

==External links==
*[http://megamek.sf.net Play through the tubes with MegaMek]
*[http://www.sarna.net Battletech Wiki that holds much information about the universe]
*[http://bgb.booru.org/index.php Blue Gunner Booru, a /btg/-maintained taggable gallery of BT and related art. Perpetually in-progress.]
[[Category:Wargames]][[Category:Skirmish-Level Wargames]][[Category:BattleTech]]

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
File:Glorious_3d_Terrain.JPG|Glorious 3d terrain
File:More_Glorious_3d_Terrain.JPG|More glorious 3d terrain
File:Infantry_Strike_From_Behind_As_The_Kuritian_Lance_Takes_On_4_Steiner_Mechs_And_6_Tanks.JPG|Infantry strike from behind as the Kuritan lance takes on 4 Steiner mechs and 6 tanks
File:Kuritians_Advancing.JPG|Kuritans advancing
File:Surrounded.JPG|Kick party
File:Eridani_Light_Horses_MechWarrior.png|Bad mofo
File:You're_awesome.jpg
File:Dougram_and_shadowhawk_comparison.png|The original anime mecha Dougram (left) compared to the original "unseen" Shadowhawk (center) and the modern Shadowhawk (right), a robot so badass it transcends cultures and 4chan boards
</gallery>
</center>

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

==/tg/ Battletech Creations==
*[[Velatine Federal Republic]]
*[[/tg/ Homebrew Mech Designs]]
*[[Sunbats mercenary company]]
*[[/btg/ Harebrained Battalion II]]

Drop Pod

2022-11-08T17:36:59Z

2607:FB91:1136:8D57:5CCE:FE3C:A930:16E4:

[[Image:Droppod 300.jpeg|350px|thumb|right|Oh, God-Emperor, why don't they do this on tabletop?]]

Just about every modern sci-fi setting has a military that uses '''Drop Pods''' to deploy; if you take a sufficiently broad interpretation, you could say that the Martian cylinders from [[H. G. Wells]]' ''The War of the Worlds'' were the very first drop pods, but it was Robert Heinlein's ''Starship Troopers'' that really crystallized the concept as we know it: a means of deployment for super-elite soldiers right where they are needed, when they are needed, and in style.

== Warhammer 40,000 ==

The [[Deep Strike]] is the [[Space Marine]]'s iconic deployment method. A pod holds ten Marines, one [[Dreadnought]], or one Thunderfire cannon with gunner. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of Deep Striking because it avoids obstacles automatically -- that's why [[Boreale]] loves them so much. For entirely unexplained reasons, once the pod lands, no one can stand (or sit) inside it again - everyone has to get out, and then some sort of miracle bars them from re-entry.

Normal humans cannot use Astartes drop pods to deep strike, even with power armor. The sheer amount of explosive force they experience upon landing would shatter their bones and liquefy their organs upon impact without the aid of Astartes-enhanced physiology and power armor.

=== Adeptus Astartes Drop Pod ===

[[File:99120101069_DropPodNEW01.jpg|200px|right|thumb|[[Boreale|STEEL REHN! DROP PODS FALLING FROM THE SKY AGAIN!]]]]

The classic and original [[Steel Rain|STEEL REHN!]] The drop pod is capable of carrying up to 12 Space Marines into combat. They are launched from a vessel in low orbit towards the drop zone, usually in the midst of or near a battlefield. Once launched, the Drop Pod plummets through the atmosphere until its retro rockets fire to slow its descent. [[Angry Marines|Although certain ''overly zealous'' marine chapters]] are known to use their drop pods as giant orbital bombs; dropping the drop pod at full speed until it eventually crushes any unfortunate heretical bitches underneath and indirectly/directly killing their occupants from sheer impact. A Machine Spirit (on-board computer) guides the Drop Pod to its destination and can receive further commands from the Pod's mothership.

Like most drop pods, they become immobile and pointless once they land, with the only use they have post-crash is to act as some sort of limited cover for the marines and fire support from its internally built weapon turrets (Usually in the form of a single Storm Bolter or Deathwind Missile Launcher). However, it can later be recovered by the Chapter's [[Techmarine|Techmarines]] and reused if it is not destroyed.

When a Drop Pod is modified to carry Space Marines in Terminator Armour, two standard-sized restraints must be replaced with a single large restraint due to the sheer bulk of Terminator Armour.

Certain versions of Drop Pods such as the Dominica Pattern Drop Pod used by the [[Sisters of Battle]] and inquisitorial strike forces, last seen in 2002, only holds five people, the rest of the space probably being used with shock dampeners to make up for the occupants' lack of superhuman physiology, or a votive shrine.

A support variant exists, equipped with [[Melta|multi-meltas]] or [[Bolter|twin-linked heavy bolters]] instead of assault cannons and missile launchers like their Space Marines counterparts.

Additionally, the assassins of the [[Eversor Assassin|Eversor Temple]] are deployed in special Drop Pods that prepare them for their missions. These Pods are equipped with neuro-links that feed the details of the mission to the assassin while remote links activate and begin to prepare his body for the task at hand.

=== Deathstorm Drop Pod ===

[[File:Death2-drop-pod.jpg|200px|thumb|right|When your forces surrounds a drop pod, guns ready and prepared to open fire on some juicy [[Space Marines|canned humans.]] But instead, [[Trap|the doors opens with five Assault Cannons primed and ready]]...[[Just As Planned|must have been some]] [[Tactical genius|tactical gen]]-[[Creed|CREEEEEEEED!]]]]

A drop pod that holds weapons instead of soldiers. Ergo, the ultimate [[Trap]] Drop Pod bristling with [[Just As Planned]]. If a drop zone is just too hot to land in, the Space Marines will use Deathstorm Drop Pods (equipped with [[assault cannons]] or [[Whirlwind Multiple Missile Launcher|Whirlwind missile launchers]]) to clear the way. [[Orks|They're only BS 2, but they compensate through volume of fire]] (they fire [[D3]] times at ''every'' unit within 12" the turn they come in).

Deathstorm Drop Pods were first conceived and prototyped by the [[Raven Guard]] Legion during the Great Crusade, who sought to augment the firepower of their precision-orbital assaults. The Raven Guard's preference for such surgical-strike tactics would, upon occasion, leave them at a disadvantage in the case of both protracted engagements and in assaulting very heavily fortified targets where heavy units such as Legion tanks and artillery could not be used. So they compensated by loading a bunch of heavy weapons on each end of the Drop Pod's door and voila! The Deathstorm was born!

Of course, such unorthodox modifications caused the AdMech to have a [[Butthurt|bitchfit]] and would have sanctioned it as tech-heresy if it weren't for the fact that it was approved by [[Corvus Corax|Emo Kid no#1 himself.]]

It would be a heartening sight if the Navy were to use these en-mass to support the Guard. Come to think of it, a massive volley of these things would be highly effective against Orks, Tyranids, and possibly Necrons. They could also be useful as a rapid, highly potent response to daemons. After all, the fluff says fighting daemonic hosts is very difficult because they can poof anywhere on the battlefield, so there are no real battle-lines in such an engagement. In that vein, they may be useful against Eldar of all types, too. Hell, just shoot huge numbers of them at anything that looks at you wrong.

Its predecessor, the Deathwind Drop Pod is no longer used by the Adeptus Astartes. This variant, similar in nearly every way to the Deathstorm variant that ultimately replaced it, was originally armed with [[Deathwind Missile Launcher]]s to provide fire support. This variant has been replaced with the Deathstorm variant due to Whirlwind Missile Launchers being more powerful than Deathwind Missile Launchers and just as easy and cost effective to manufacture. But not launched from a drop pod and therefore we can assume either the Deathwind is secretly used or, more likely, they just slapped Whirlwind Missile Launchers on and called it "Deathstorm" and hoped the AdMech didn't notice.

=== Dreadclaw Assault Pod ===

[[File:Dreadclaw_Pod.png|200px|right|thumb|The only drop pod that is the most cost effective and reusable. Unfortunately, its [[Heresy|heretical nature]] turns this machine into a [[RIP AND TEAR|flying blender.]]]]

{{Main|Dreadclaw}}

The '''''only''''' drop pod that could actually be ''reused''.

The Dreadclaw was one of the most advanced if not ''the'' most advanced drop pod that the Imperials actually got a hold on. The fact that it could ''fly'' back up to its mothership and still be able to be 'resupplied' with even ''more'' marines without being limited to the amount of drop pods you can use, makes the Dreadclaw absolutely [[Awesome]]....if you ignore the fact that the Dreadclaw is also the [[That Guy|most notorious drop pod,]] [[FATAL|notable in turning its occupants into mincemeat,]] [[Not As Planned|not so Awesome.]]

The Imperium used to use the Dreadclaw, until they learned that its design made it receptive to the influence of [[Chaos]] during the [[Horus Heresy]]. This was not a problem for [[Chaos Space Marines]], who use them to this day. Unfortunately, they are both more versatile and more deadly than drop pods; capable of being used as assault boats or drop pods and then return to orbit to get more marines. They also have plasma cannons to blast everyone with.

Its machine spirit had been described as being unusually blood thirsty, which often caused lethal "incidents" with maintenance crews, and even Marines themselves, even before the pods fell to Chaos, hence why the Dreadclaw wasn't very popular amongst legions, who actually gave a fuck about their mortal serfs. And then when the Heresy kicked off and the Dreadclaws began actively sabotaging ships, the last thing Imperial Navy captains wanted was a bunch of murderous pods with heavy Melta guns right next to their bulkheads.

That said, for the Chaos Legions, they've become much more safe and docile.

Also, somehow, evidence suggests it's daemon proof. When daemons are too scared or can't even possess them, you know it's good.

[[Forge World]] used to make these in [[Battlefleet Gothic]] scale.

=== Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod ===

[[File:Dread_Pod.png|200px|right|thumb|A more sensible way on creating a flying dreadnought than the ''[[Derp|other]]'' [[Librarian Dreadnought|alternative that GW coughed up.]]]]

A drop pod with all the restraints and harnesses taken out, and only three fins instead of five. The Lucius was a obviously much larger variant than the standard Drop Pods of the Legiones Astartes and had a more powerful engine to compensate, allowing for a dangerously meteoric descent to the battlefield. This means that only a [[Dreadnought]] can survive landing in it.

This Drop Pod pattern is the largest known Drop Pod variant used by the Adeptus Astartes save for [[Skub|arguably]] the Kharybdis Assault Claw, and is capable of delivering a single Dreadnought into combat.

The Dreadnought Drop Pod uses three or four large external door ramps as opposed to the smaller ones used on other types of Drop Pods. These Drop Pods are capable of delivering both Contemptor Dreadnoughts and now-standard Castraferrum Pattern Mars Mark IV and Mark V Dreadnoughts to the battlefield.

Previously, it allowed it to assault as soon as it landed, but now, when nothing can assault from reserves Lucius DP have been changed to granting Shrouded for himself, and everything hiding behind it or on it on the turn it deep strikes, likely to represent cloud of dust, dirt and debris, raised by its meteoric descent. Oh, and the dread can stay inside the pod, to use it as ablative hull points, and even fire his weapons from the inside, as it's open-topped. All in all a great way to deep strike your dread, and be sure he won't be shot off board the turn it drops.

Found in IA2:2nd, these pods also have drop pod assault and can get precision deep strike for 20pts using Dropsite Massacre legacy rules in the appendix, but as drop pods they already had the ability to reduce scatter. Yes it still has the assault vehicle rule (despite already having it for being open toped - typical Forge World rules stupidity for you), but that still doesn't actually allow things to charge the turn they deep strike, very few things get around the BRB that way.

=== Kharybdis Assault Claw ===

[[File:Kharybdis.jpg|200px|right|thumb|The biggest falling Space Marines-in-a-Can of this isle. If it was any bigger, it would have been classified as an Ork Attack Rok.]]

A Super Heavy Drop Pod used during the [[Great Crusade]], capable of carrying twenty Marines or a pair of Dreadnoughts. Also used for burning shit with its engines as it flies over it, and ''melting'' shit it lands on (not to mention having the ability to fly back to its ship for another batch of soldiers to make planetfall). Sadly, the Kharybdis suffered similar problems as its smaller brother, the Dreadclaw. While the latter had a malevolent AI that caused lethal "accidents" (which became much more frequent when the Horus Heresy started and which forced Imperial Commanders to simply jettison them into the blackness of space), the Kharybdis (while also having an AI) had it differently.

The AI of the Drop Pod tended to bond with a person and became violently unpredictable whenever its preferred handler wasn't around. If the handler somehow died or became unable to tend to it, then the bonded Kharybdis had to be jettisoned or destroyed since it would refuse to allow anyone else inside its hold- and tended to demonstrate this by opening its doors in mid-drop to incinerate anyone riding in it. Thus [[Red Scorpions#Gallery|few Space Marine Chapters have one these days]], though Chaos Marine Legions still have some in their armouries.

Because of its ability to essentially punch through meters thick armor like butter, they were popular as makeshift boarding vehicles in the [[Imperial Navy]]. The arrival of a flight of these ominous Assault craft, boarding hooks extended as they approached their target, signaled that asses are going to be creamed whoever that dared opposed the Legiones Astartes.

Some [[Heresy|''unorthodox'']] commanders who have watched one too many Mad Max movies or grew up on a Ork infested world; thereby prompting these individuals to employ the Kharybdis as a tank hunter, [[Awesome|ramming enemy armor in low-altitude attack runs.]] It is basically the marines' equivalent of the [[Tyrannocyte]]. This also demonstrates how maneuverable drop pods and their various types are and how insanely tough Astartes are.

== Starship Troopers ==

Each member of the Mobile Infantry gets his own pod, containing his suit of armor. The armor itself is supposedly capable of surviving re-entry ''(a ship making a drop is on a sub-orbital, ie, falling, trajectory during the drop before accelerating back to orbital speed; for the troopers the reentry is more like SpaceShipOne than say Dragon)'', and can even fly ("a little," as Heinlein writes). The purpose of the pod is to improve the accuracy of the drop by controlling for the aerodynamic factors, as well as disintegrate on the way down producing chaff and debris to distract enemy defenses and blend in with a much larger number of decoy pods used to screen the dropping force. The decoys contain additional tricks such as flares, jammers, bombs, and dumb rockets to increase the amount of visual and electromagnetic noise in the drop area.

== [[Command and Conquer]] ==

In the Command & Conquer universe, by the era of Tiberian Sun, GDI makes use of drop pods, fired from their orbital space station ''Philadelphia'' as very quick response troops. The pods are rather small, holding only one trooper each, and have forward mounted machine guns which give off a nice hail of gunfire while dropping to at least somewhat clear the landing zone. While the soldiers come as Elite ranked, they are only otherwise regular Light Troopers and Disc Throwers (though the first mission's FMV depicts them having some kind of crazy Railgun/beam weapon). Was only available when mission triggers dropped them, but as of ''Firestorm'', the Upgrade Center gave you the choice of building a plugin for a rechargeable targeted power, fuck yeah.

By the time of the 3rd Tiberium War , GDI is capable of dropping 3 squads worth of Zone Troopers, elite, jumpjet and heavy power armour equipped infantry specialized in operating in tiberium infested areas who use fucking railguns to shit fury down Nod's alien radioactive crystal loving throat and punch its tank divisions in the dick.

== [[Battletech]] ==

Appearing in Battletech in 2449, they were developed as a method to rapidly deploy a vanguard of BattleMechs without exposing vulnerable DropShips to heavy anti-aircraft fire. It consists of an ablative “Drop Cocoon” with the supporting thrusters, sensors, and parachute to deploy a BattleMech from orbit to the lower atmosphere. Once there, it falls apart for the BattleMech to use its own thrusters to maneuver to the ground while avoiding anti aircraft fire from fighter craft or ground installations. Used only for elite special operations due to costs, Inner Sphere doctrine insists the command elements of a unit be deployed last for situational awareness and coordination while the Clans prefer deploying commanders first to ensure they earn their rank and glory.

== [[Halo]] ==

The UNSC, Covenant, and Banished are known to use utilize drop pods. The UNSC uses the S.O.E.I.V.(Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle) to deploy Spartans and more commonly [[This Guy|ODSTs]]. The pods are fitted with a viewport, several screens to monitor their squadmate's descent, and a rack to holster several weapons. The covenant and banished use several types of pods that can contain 1 troop up with only the ground to slow their descent, to several that are designed with rockets to slow descent and energy shielding for the personnel.

== Gallery ==

<gallery>

Image:JokaeroDropPod.jpg|150px|thumb|right|A [[Jokaero]] Drop Pod.

File:DOWDropPod1.png|A [[Blood Ravens]] Drop Pod in [[Dawn of War#Dawn of War|Dawn of War.]]

File:Ultra_Drop_Pod.jpg

</gallery>

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Battlefleet Gothic]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Space Marines]]

[[Category: Adeptus Astartes Navy]]

[[Category: Chaos]]

[[Category: Fleets of Chaos]]

[[Category: Chaos Space Marines]]

[[Category: Vehicles]]

[[Category: Flyers]]

{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}

{|align=center border=2 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4
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!colspan=1| Adeptus Astartes!! Other Imperials!! Chaos!! Other
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{{Marines-Forces}}
{{Space Wolves}}
{{Dark Angels}}
{{Blood Angels}}
{{Black-Templars}}
{{Deathwatch}}
{{Grey Knights}}
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{{Sisters-of-Battle}}
{{Custodes}}
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{{Chaos Space Marines}}
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{{Fallen-Angels}}
|}