19 replies to this topic

[Tezcatli]

I was wondering if Battletech had something similar to the penal legions of the 40k universe. Similar perhaps to the Last chancers.

[Strum Wealh]

IIRC, the Combine famously has at least a couple such units (I'll have to get back to you with the specific unit names).

I would be surprised if the other Successor States didn't have analogous units.

[Mao of DC]

I'm sure they did but I doubt the houses or anyone would allow condemed men and women access to battlemechs. That is like letting a death row inmate have a main battle tank.

[ValdnadHartagga]

The closest you can get in terms of official House units that are equipped with BattleMechs are the Ghost Regiments of the Draconis Combine. Granted, these are not criminals given a chance to die for their Successor State, but rather regiments comprised of less-desirable citizen warriors, many of whom were career criminals (yakuza) and had strong ties to such.

In the Clans, the closest equivalent are Solahma units, comprised of warriors who are deemed to be past their prime (basically anyone over the age of 35 without a command rank). While not criminals, these are warriors given a final chance to serve their Clan - the goal of a Solahma warrior is to find honor by dying in battle. Solahma units are infantry only. Ironically, assignment to a Solahma regiment can be more or less seen as punishment for not dying gloriously in battle earlier in one's career. Clans are brutal, bro.

Edited by ValdnadHartagga, 21 December 2013 - 08:09 PM.

[Navy Sixes]

I don't think they gave criminals battlemechs in lore, but I know for a fact that there are penal units in MWO. It's where they put all of us misfits, outcasts, and utter f#ck-ups.

We call it "Charlie Lance."

[Strum Wealh]

The story of one such DCMS penal unit - or, rather, of the mercenary unit arising out of the survivors of one such penal unit - is described in the old FedSuns sourcebook.

Quote

Among those criminals, disgraced officers, and so-called “deviants” who were volunteered into the Chain Gang missions of 2825 were Talon Sergeant Jur Sturlaugson and Katrina Reban. Sturlaugson was a member of the “Unproductive Regiment,” a Draconian euphemism for those imprisoned in a DCMS stockade. He had landed there as one of many troopers who found themselves unable to carry out the extermination order that created the infamous Kentares Massacre. Katrina Reban was an Unproductive who had answered when officials had come to her New Samarkand village calling for “true believers in the Kurita way.” Whether or not she was that, believer Katrina had spent most of her 28 years as a prostitute in a DCMS brothel.

Katrina and Jur were thrown together on a Chain Gang Mission bound for the Davion world of Udibi. During the voyage, the guards allowed their charges to behave as they wished during their final hours of life. From the many physical couplings among the doomed men and women came a bond of true love between the Talon Sergeant and the Prostitute.

The raid against Udibi failed before it began. The two lances of patched and barely operating Chain Gang ‘Mechs soon became scattered, and it was not long before AFFS forces began to hunt them down one by one. Talon Sergeant Sturlaugson became trapped, in a desperate cat-and-mouse game with two AFFS ‘Mechs while he searched desperately for Katrina Reban. This went on for two hours, until he finally came upon his love in her Stinger, cornered by a Davion Marauder. Throwing himself between Reban and the Davion’ Mech, Sturlaugson took the PPC fire meant for Reban’s ‘Mech.

The Davion soldiers who witnessed this act were moved by Sturlaugson’s heroism and by Katrina’s explanation of why he had risked his life. The soldiers brought the story to their superiors, who allowed both the media and the Prince to get wind of it. When Paul Davion learned that Sturlaugson had resisted participation in the Kentares Massacre, he immediately granted the lovers citizenship in the Federated Suns.

Jur Sturlaugson and Katrina Reban went on to serve in the AFFS and later formed their own mercenary unit, which they named the Ever-Free. The exploits of this unit, whose symbol was the broken chain, become a popular part of the legend and lore of Davion culture.

-From True Tales and Popular Stories , by Father Ryan Ramon, Unfinished Book Press, New Avalon, 3010

[Kyone Akashi]

The most notable unit in the DCMS to which this term can be applied would probably be the Amphigean Light Assault Group.

An excerpt from the Draconis Combine Field Manual:

The Amphigean Light Assault Groups were the brainchild of Jinjiro Kurita - the Coordinator responsible for the Kentares Massacre and, many say, the Second Succession War. While his involvement certainly did not lend the proposal particular prestige, even in his worst periods of madness Jinjiro possessed a brilliant strategic mind firmly focused on the conduct of warfare. While organizing the Chain Gang Missions, a program in which convicts were given rudimentary 'Mech training and dropped behind enemy lines to sell themselves as dearly as possible, Jinjiro Kurita recognized that the Draconis Combine could use a few standing regiments of shock troops trained to soften up an enemy's tough spot. Thus, he proposed the creation of the Amphigean LAG. No samurai were incorporated into the Amphigean units: members were considered expendable and expected to stand ready to further the goals of the Dragon at any cost.

The Amphigean LAG operate under a pack mentality; that is, members try to single out an opposing BattleMech or other vehicle and use several light 'Mechs to harry the opponent and finally bring it down. These regiments are highly proficient at instigating a running battle, forcing the enemy to spread itself thin, or quickly outdistancing the enemy and setting up ambushes for enemy pursuers. As the light 'Mechs that comprise most of the Amphigean troops can be easily destroyed by heavier machines, any lance commander or higher officer can call a general retreat and regroup in the face of potential disaster. Amphigean groups work their way as close to the enemy ranks as possible, then spring out to make a rear attack or overwhelm their opponents with sheer numbers. The Amphigean LAG specialize in search-and-destroy missions, relying on their superior speed rather than armor and raw firepower to get the job done. They rarely engage in one-on-one fighting, even against other light 'Mechs.

The First and Second Amphigean acquitted themselves admirably in the Second Succession War, conducting successful search and destroy missions on the planets Strawn, Kessel and Kobe. When the Second Amphigean destroyed a Steiner regiment of heavy and assault 'Mechs on Kessel in a series of hit-and-run raids conducted over the course of several weeks, the High Command dubbed the Amphigeans "Light Assault Groups".

The Amphigeans were initially assigned to the Dieron Military District to serve under a warlord more interested in results than proper observance of bushido. The immediate successes of the Amphigean regiments caused concern among other warlords, who worried that such potentially lethal troops were under the command of a single warlord. To minimize the potential that these regiments might be turned against the Dragon, Jinjiro ordered the Amphigeans split into floating regiments that would serve among various districts and answer to the prefecture commander or warlord of their assigned districts.

Sidenote: an earlier source had described the Amphigean LAG as a mercenary unit, but this has since been retconned.

The Ghost regiments, on the other hand, are probably a bad example here. Even though their members are recruited from the Yakuza, they are not convicts, and the units are not considered a penal legion. Rather, it is a sort of unofficial cooperation between Kanrei Theodore Kurita and the Kuritan criminal underworld.

Edited by Kyone Akashi, 21 December 2013 - 09:32 PM.

[Tezcatli]

Hmm. Very interesting. It seems like a Penal Unit isn't really practical because of the high value of a battlemech. I guess even the cheapest mechs are worth too much to risk on regular prisoners.

Still perhaps if a unit was comprised of veteran mechwarriors that were imprisoned for one reason or another. It could still be better then handing off the mechs to greenhorns.

[Sodapop]

Although they weren't criminals, weren't the Legions Of Vega comprised of House Kurita undesirables?

[Kyone Akashi]

Yes, the DCMS used that unit as a dumping ground for what they'd consider "lost causes". Theodore Kurita was sent there by orders of daddy Takashi - but Theodora-sama did the unexpected and, rather than taking it as a punishment, accepted the challenge and turned the Legion around, transforming it into a valuable asset ... once he managed to gain the trust and respect of his fellow 'Mechwarriors, that is.

The Legion and these events are briefly covered in the excellent novel Heir to the Dragon, which portrays the life of Theodore Kurita from his graduation at the Academy all the way to becoming Gunji-no-Kanrei of the DCMS. It also details the formation of the Ghost regiments that were mentioned earlier.

Tezcatli, on 21 December 2013 - 10:25 PM, said:

Hmm. Very interesting. It seems like a Penal Unit isn't really practical because of the high value of a battlemech. I guess even the cheapest mechs are worth too much to risk on regular prisoners.

Indeed. In case of the Draconis Combine, this is a matter of conflicting interests. The DCMS has a much higher recruitment potential, but intentionally limits itself by imposing caste restrictions that result in almost all of its 'Mechwarriors hailing from nobility rather than the peasantry - the Kuritan way of life, that puts more emphasis on the warrior than the 'Mech (albeit for reasons of tradition, not compassion), results in there being a lot of untapped potential in pilots as well as machines.

In this light, setting apart a number of light BattleMechs to be crewed by honorless undesirables seems like an economically inefficient, yet militarily still productive way of creating a new class of expendable shock troops.

I would expect such practice to become much less common after Theodore's reforms, which also result in minor changes to DCMS recruitment policies - not to mention the loss of materiel and industry during the Clan invasion.

Edited by Kyone Akashi, 22 December 2013 - 12:38 AM.

[Abivard]

Penal bn's are almost always ill equipped units, Used in high attrition type missions, be they combat or not, more often they are not used in combat but instead giving dirty/deadly missions such as picking up radioactive debris from battlefields. Every house/state has them, and they all are reviled. Those condemned are not sent there in order to redeem themselves, but instead are sent to get 'some use' out of them before they die. It supplants and postpones their executions by the state, it is very rare if not almost unheard of for anyone to be 'mustered out' of a penal unit, unless it is feet first.

[Spokes]

These aren't BattleMech units, but. . .

-- J-27 Ordnance Transport --

Although it plays a crucial role in combat by providing front-line troops with ammunition, such duty is usually considered punishment rather than a privilege. . .

For the most part, the personnel of J-27's are losers from the infantry. Some units, especially those of the Draconis Combine, are considered penal units. Military convicts are offered the choice between a firing squad and duty on a J-27. The majority choose the firing squad.

Penal units were first used by the Free Worlds League, and the policy of using military convicts as J-27 crew members quickly spread to most of the other Houses. Currently, only House Steiner and House Davion do not follow this practice, feeling that ammunition handlers need better motivation than facing certain death.

One such penal unit is House Liao's 125th Deadmen Ordnance Carriers.

-- pg 194, 3025 Technical Readout

[RavensScar]

I'm not a BT Lore buff (so feel free to shoot this down) but from an RP / narrative perspective, I could certainly get behind the idea of a Mechwarrior 'Dirty Dozen' style company:

Disgraced pilots who are too good to simply give the boot, given third-rate battlemechs that aren't worth the time and resources to refit, and seemingly impossible objectives to achieve.

[Strum Wealh]

RavensScar, on 30 December 2013 - 12:35 PM, said:

I'm not a BT Lore buff (so feel free to shoot this down) but from an RP / narrative perspective, I could certainly get behind the idea of a Mechwarrior 'Dirty Dozen' style company:

Disgraced pilots who are too good to simply give the boot, given third-rate battlemechs that aren't worth the time and resources to refit, and seemingly impossible objectives to achieve.

That's pretty much what the Falcon Guards had become by the time Aidan Pryde had taken command of them.

Granted, they were Clan and were at Cluster strength (30-75 Points (where 1 Point = 1 'Mech, 1 set of 5 Elementals, etc)), but the general idea of a unit so disgraced that "Khan Crichell wanted to wipe the unit from the rolls, but his saKhan intervened, arguing that doing so would be a waste of the long and storied history of the unit" and "command was given to Star Colonel Aidan Pryde, the Khans viewing it appropriate to give a dezgra Cluster to a disgraced Star Colonel" is there.

Also, as far as additional penal units go, there are the Cohors Morituri (from the Marian Hegemony) and the 210th Combine Punishment Battalion (extant as of 3065, and apparently one of roughly two-dozen such units).

----------

Between the Ghost Regiments, the Amphigean LAG, the Chain Gang Missions, the J-27 units, and the eventual(?) Combine Punishment Battalions, it does seem like a not-insignificant portion of the Combine's military force is made up of criminals...

[Lord Ikka]

I would point out the the Legions of Vega for the DCMS are not-quite penal battalions, but very close.

[Alexander Steel]

I believe the Legion of Vega was about as close to this as you'll find in the lore around 3025. Basically the leader of the Draconis Combine put his son in charge of the Combine's worst unit full of criminals, mech warriors with questionable loyalty, and those that were 1 strike away from being kicked out of the military or shot.

http://www.sarna.net.../Legion_of_Vega

Quote

The Legion of Vega was conceived of by Takashi Kurita as a "sink" unit where soldiers who were unable to die honorably in battle, mercenaries who fell prey to the Combine's Company Store ploys, misfits, troublemakers, and malcontents could be isolated from the rest of the DCMS. These warriors weren't expected to do anything other than die for the Combine, and were often spent in battle with little thought to their honor or effective use. The Legion lived down to these expectations, but had an annoying habit of surviving.

Edited by Alexander Steel, 06 January 2014 - 05:42 AM.

[3rdworld]

Some people already hit it, but Kurita used "criminals" or shady people for some of their units.

As far as being used to die basically, Solahma Clan units is probably the best example. They were generally old warriors, whose time had passed. They were usually infantry but sometimes would be comprised of outdated mechs. Usually they were placed into missions in which the chance of survival was nearly zero.

[SunTzu Liao]

The Kell Hounds had their "Last Chancers" in the novel Natural Selection.... basically criminals & terminally ill vets given half-functioning mechs and a chance to fight... any kills/bounties would go to pay their victims/medical bills...

[Wildstreak]

Tycho von Gagern, on 21 December 2013 - 08:13 PM, said:

I don't think they gave criminals battlemechs in lore, but I know for a fact that there are penal units in MWO. It's where they put all of us misfits, outcasts, and utter f#ck-ups.

We call it "Charlie Lance."

Thought it was just PUGing in general.

In lore, I would add Periphery units given who/what makes up their rosters.

[Deathz Jester]

Another question would be is there an Order No. 227

Edited by Iron Harlequin, 27 January 2014 - 02:22 PM.