This is going to be a long post, so brace your eyes. You have been warned.
We need to look at this thing holistically. There is honor across the board, then there is honor as relates to the TT game. The same rules cannot be applied for a video game. In principle however, almost everything CAN be translated.
The honor system separates the Clans from the barbarians of the IS. Now as a logical person, I can relate to the IS. The use of mines, vibrabombs etc while unappealing or dishonorable to me is just a way of fighting for the IS. If you are tasked with defending a city & us Clansmen invade, I get that your honor lies in defending the city to the best of your ability with the resources you have available to you. You IS guys have your way of doing things, we have ours. Did we say, "That Kai Allard-Liao is a depsicable *******!"
He did jury rig his mech to explode after all. No we did not. We saw that one warrior facing overwhelming odds defeated an elite force of a superior foe. He is lauded by the Clans. We respect ingenuity, creativity and overall, bravery. Tyra Miraborg got herself lines in the Remembrance.
What the IS (as well as those newcomers) need to understand is, the rules governing how a Clan warrior fights are conditional. To those pretenders who spew nonsense with some imaginary authority as if they know what they are talking about, I am speaking directly to you. (Yes Kay Wolf that means you.)
Bidding is done to reduce the loss of life, equipment, resources as well as garner honor. If you can accomplish the most with the least, you are praised, especially those sub-commanders that bid below the cut-down. However there are conditions.
Clan Wolf Sourcebook - Pg.31
Bidding is conditional on the response of the defenders. Are you going to bid down to a Star of mechs only to end up facing a Battalion?
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In thinking of his life, everything before the invasion seemed faded and unreal like early holodramas and ancient newsreels. The invaders were, in many ways, the most honorable of foes. Again and again, they tried to match their forces to ours so that we would not lose too much face, even in defeat.
Lethal Heritage - Pg.161 possibly this is a pdf & it counts the cover as page 1 so it might be 162 or 163
If you say you have two lances defending the position, we are not going to bid a Trinary of mechs. We work with the information given to us. We will give you a fair fight (or in most cases give you the numerical advantage), if you give us the info. Say nothing & we are within our rights to bring everything to bear on you.
(Argue with the source material Kay), I DARE you)
Clan warriors take pride in aiming at & destroying specific parts of mechs.
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The twin bolts of blue lightning crackled through the air. Both hit the Prometheus' right leg, reducing its armor to virtual vapor. A pulse laser in the Masakari's right arm drilled a series of green bolts into the same limb. That hit ripped away all but the very last bit of armor as far as the computer was concerned. (Pg.34)
Victor shook his head to clear it and found himself hanging from the restraining straps of the command couch. Focusing beyond the holographic display that showed the Masakari getting back to its taloned feet, he saw only blackness through the viewports. His eyes confirmed what gravity had already told him—that his 'Mech had landed face-down in the dirt. With only one leg and my right-side armor breached front and back, there's no way I can continue the fight.
Glancing at the approaching Masakari in the display, he mentally amended that idea. And there's no way Ranna is going to let me continue the fight. I can't even punch out!
Leaving no doubt as to why the BattleMech had ruled warfare since its creation six centuries earlier, the Masakari concentrated all four of its guns on the downed Daishi. Aiming in deliberate and well-practiced moves that showed Victor why the Clans had so easily swept through the Inner Sphere, the Masakari opened the Daishi's back like a coroner doing an autopsy. The PPC bolts fried structural stabilizers while the lasers sliced through ferro-titanium ribs.
The lasers freed the Daishi's fusion engine from its mountings. It dropped down, the safeguards in it snuffing the reaction before it could explode. As if the Masakari had pulled the Daishi's heart out, Victor's 'Mech shuddered once, then all the monitors died, leaving him hanging in a hot, dark cocoon.
The deathly stillness pressed in on him, then he shook his head.The only advantage we ever had in fighting the Clans was that they always played by a rigid set of rules that gave us a tactical edge. If they ever come to embrace the flexibility that Phelan and the others showed here, Ragnar won't be the only Prince of the Inner Sphere sporting a bondcord.
Natural Selection - Pg.35 possibly. this is a pdf & it counts the cover as page 1, so it might 35 or 36 not sure.
What is this? Legging? Shooting a downed mech? And in the back too? We are surgeons not butchers. We aim at specific parts to disable the enemy mech using as little energy & ammo as possible before moving on to another target. We knock you down. If you try to get back up, we give you a knock to keep you down. The only time a Clan warrior tries to kill someone is when there is hate involved, usually because something personal happened. As Victor noted, his mech was damaged in a way where he was simply unable to continue fighting. That is what we do & anyone who says otherwise does not know what they are talking about.
(Argue with the source material Kay, I DARE you)
Oh and for the record, before you even think of thinking about attacking the "flexibility" part, Victor is referring to Phelan's group, using hit & run tactics, as opposed to the common Clansman would would simply stand still & argue that the Inner Sphere freebirth should come out & fight.
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The Flag group had begun to move in the rough direction of the radio transmissions, but things fluctuated too rapidly to be certain they were on the right track. Victor knew that meant the Kell Hounds were involved in a running battle, which should have been good for them. Hit-and-run has been the tactic de jour to use against the Clans. If Phelan's turning it back against us, though, we could be in trouble.
If you only shoot for the CT to make the reactor go critical how would you ever claim isorla & bondsmen? Legging, shooting downed mechs & shooting the rear of a mech is
NOT dishonorable. Oh and as for this notion about shooting mechs that have overheated & shut down being dishonorable as well............
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Peri finished the torso drill and Joanna addressed Aidan. "Cadet Aidan. Check your heat scale. Does it show up normal? Respond."
On the intercom, cadets always had to wait for Joanna's order to respond before they could press and hold down the blue button next to the 'Mech throttle and actually speak to her. He had expected the communication restrictions to be relaxed once in a 'Mech, and it surprised him to learn that he could stillnot speak to Joanna or any other officer without permission to respond.
"Heat scale normal." he said and released the button.
As it should be. I tell you to check only to make sure you realize the most important cockpit rule. Never—not in the heat of battle or the excitement of fixing an enemy 'Mech in your sights, lining it up, and using your most skillful assault plan, your best array of weaponry in the fancy blasts and pulses that have become your battlefield specialty—never, never forget that you must be continually conscious of the ribbons of information revealed on the heat-scale gauge. A 'Mech is like a living being; it is like the horse of the cavalry, the camel of the desert warrior. You must continually care for it, not push it too much, not allow it to become overheated.
Just as those animals speeded up the time, and in many ways, expanded the territory over which wars could be conducted, so the BattleMech—and especially the OmniMech—has quickened and enhanced the possibilities of ground warfare. But even with the improved heat-sink technology of the OmniMechs our scientists have provided us, we can still disable our own 'Mech, making it a sitting duck for others, or even get it blown up and ourselves with it, because we get so caught up in being a hero that we forget the patterns of awareness that a 'Mech pilot must maintain at all times. These patterns include the knowledge of your own 'Mech as well as the situation of the fellow warriors of your Star or Star Cluster. This warning is for all of you. Cadet Peri, you understand this, quiaff? Respond."
Way of the Clans - Pg. 43 (again this might not be the exact page as stated above)
At the time Aidan is training, the invasion had not begun which means that Clan warriors will only be fighting Clan warriors. (with the obvious exception of some tainted group or solahma unit being sent after pirates or bandits). If shooting a mech that has shut down due to overheating is dishonorable & that would be the common rule not the exception, why would Joanna mention the "sitting duck" part?
Would a warrior not say, "Hey it looks like he/she overheated, let me hold on here until they cool down & start back up." Why did Joanna not say "you would be a sitting duck to a dishonorable opponent."
Because it is stupid & whoever says that does not know what they are talking about. You are in charge of managing your own heat. If you choose to fire off all your lasers & shut down, that is
YOUR problem.
(Argue with the source material Kay, I DARE you)
Clan warriors are not only brave but cunning.
The Falcon & The Wolf - Pg.23 (you know the drill by now)
Was that dishonorable? Should Natasha have said, "Hey Falcons, the hot water from this river is masking our heat signatures, so you may not be able to see us. You guys need to come left. No, no. Left. Yes. A little bit more. See me now? No? OK hold on, let me fire off a laser. There. Saw that? Yes? OK we can fight now."
Clan warriors use ambushes. Once the batchall has been completed & the Circle of Equals is stated, it is game on.
(Argue with the source material Kay, I DARE you! Please attempt a rebuttal after you see the work of the writers of the universe in your face with the title & page listed. PLEASE!)
Get it through your head. We fight honorably but there are conditions for everything.
Edited by Jaroth Winson, 01 May 2013 - 05:10 AM.
4
. Fail to manage heat = deserves to be shot.
