20 replies to this topic

[EarlGrey83]

Hi there,

Since today starts the faction challenge; It might be a good cause to write a little summary about Factions in MWO.
You can opt-in the challenge here: http://mwomercs.com/...ction-challenge

1. Why should I join a faction?
Joining a faction does nothing in the game at the moment, it just changes your portrait. There will be faction related bonuses and play modes with community warfare later on. The faction challenge is the first test to those mechanics.
Despite that, Mech Warrior has a very rich background story wich keeps the community together for years. This includes several pc games, the board game(s) of course, over 70 books and an old cartoon.
Joining a faction in MWO lets you take part in this great community and enrich the game for you.

2. How do I join a faction in MWO?
That is pretty simple: under https://mwomercs.com/profile/faction you can choose your faction. It will be shown in the game and forum.

3. What faction should I join?
Thats the tough decision you have to make. You can find people of any factions in the faction forums http://mwomercs.com/...s-inner-sphere/ and get some informations there.
For detailed infos you can read everything at http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Inner_Sphere.


For a quick descision I´ll write a short summary:


House Davion:
A monarchistic, mostly english speaking nation named the Federated Suns.
Personal freedom for everyone, free press. Planets ruled by nobility.
The FedSuns have been at constant war with their neighbours - House Kurita and House Liao - for centuries.
Its army is one of the strongest and most well trained in the Inner Sphere.
At the moment House Davion and House Steiner are united by marriage.

House Kurita:
A isolatoric, japanese speaking nation named the Draconis Combine.
It is ruled centralistic by House Kurita and its military. The army is following the Samurai tradition.
The Draconis Combine has been at war constantly with House Davion and from time to time with House Steiner, their other neighbour. Recently, the borderlands to House Steiner has been granted independence to form the Free Rasalhague Republic.

House Liao:
A centralistic, mostly chinese speaking nation - including large russian influences - named the Capellan Confederation.
It is ruled by House Liao and its intelligence service. The people are divided in castes. Its army is fanatically, small but equiped with a lot of new high tech Battle Mechs.
The Capellan Confederation is nearly constant at war with the neighbouring House Davion, to whom it recently lost a big part of its territory. It has a trade conections to its other neighbour, House Marik.

House Marik:
A pseudo democratic multinational nation named the Free Worlds League. It is a democratic nation, but the power has been devided by the same families for centuries. Personal freedom and high industrial capabilities are the good sides, political infighting up to civil wars the bad.
The FWL has trade conections to the whole Inner Sphere, especially its neighbour House Liao.
It has a economic rivaly with its other neighbour, House Steiner.

House Steiner:
A monarchistic, mostly german speaking nation named the Lyran Commonwealth.
Personal freedom for everyone, free press. Planets ruled by nobility.
Richest nation, politically ruled by its merchants. Its army is outfitted with the biggest and newest Battle Mechs you can produce for money, but very slow and inefective.
The Lyran Commonwealth is selling to the whole Inner Sphere. It is rivals with the neighbouring House Marik and are annoyed from time to time by overly agressive House Kurita. This border however has now become the Free Rasalhague Republic.
House Steiner and House Davion are united by marriage.

Free Rasalhague Republic.
A democratic, scandinavian influented nation recently formed betwee House Kurita and House Steiner, on good terms with both.
Smallest of the factions at the moment.
Its army is combined of older House Kurita and newly bought House Steiner equipment.



I hope this rundown can help you to find a faction and enrich the MWO experience with some lore.
Have fun, and see you on the battlefield. (with a faction tag of course )

Sorry for spelling and grammar, I´m not a native speaker.

[ZeProme]

TBH, I picked House Liao just cause my last name is almost the same. Just replace the "L" with a letter. (Yours to guess).

For odd reasons, I also chose Liao cause Koniving is Liao too. Yay?

Oh also OP, can you include mechs in which each House are familiar with? And the form of military doctrine they favor? IIRC, there is a House that really likes Victors, so I guess that would mean they are mostly about mobility?

Yeah, I don't know much about the lores ._.;

[Koniving]

There used to be a good guide on that.

But I do know that you can detect specific variants by reading their names.
However keep in mind that this isn't 100% accurate, just generally true.

For example, the Cataphract 3D is a Davion design. D for Davion.
The Raven 3-L is a Liao design, L for Liao.
The Cataphract mech itself is a Liao design. The 0X being the original (X for experimental), the 1X Liao, 2X Liao, 4X (X for experimental) is by the Davions, 3L and 3LL both Liao, and the 5D is Davion.

Victors. Victor 9K is Kurita. D is Davion. S is Steiner.

Atlases. D is Davion. D-DC just means Davion with Dual Cockpit. K is Kurita. Atlas S2 is Steiner yet S is not. Fun fact: The Atlas S2 has rear-mounted Streak SRM-2s to fire backwards. K had rear-mounted MPLs.

[EarlGrey83]

ZeProme, on 21 March 2014 - 08:00 AM, said:

TBH, I picked House Liao just cause my last name is almost the same. Just replace the "L" with a letter. (Yours to guess).

For odd reasons, I also chose Liao cause Koniving is Liao too. Yay?

Oh also OP, can you include mechs in which each House are familiar with? And the form of military doctrine they favor? IIRC, there is a House that really likes Victors, so I guess that would mean they are mostly about mobility?

Yeah, I don't know much about the lores ._.;

Forum member Enervation has been writing down an awesome list of the Mechs in MWO and where they are produced. You can find it here: http://mwomercs.com/...ch-manufacture/


Answering your Question about military doctrine, I´ll try a very brief writedown from my memory. For further advice ask Sarna-net.

Davion: Very efficient and flexible army, mixed tonage lances of battlemechs. Favor autocannons.

Kurita: Highly skilled warriors, following the bushido code. Sometimes they rather die before surrender. Favor duelling.

Liao: They have a normal army, wich can be a bit undersupplied; also independent elite Warrior Houses who follow their own rules. Most soldiers are fanaticaly loyal. Due to shortage of production facilities House Liao startet to develop new and smaller Mechs, like the Raven. Few Assault Mechs are used.

Marik: They use a lot of combined forces (artillery, helicopter...). Don´t really remember a lot about them.

Steiner: Very inefficient army, many nobel leaders without real combat experience. They make up for it with big Mechs.
Highest rate of Assault Mechs.

Free Rasalhague Republic: They kept the House Kurita military system when they received their independence, but are skandinavian like relaxed. They use Kurita and Steiner equipment.


Hope this could answer your questions.

[No use for a name]

Koniving, on 21 March 2014 - 12:27 PM, said:

There used to be a good guide on that.

But I do know that you can detect specific variants by reading their names.
However keep in mind that this isn't 100% accurate, just generally true.

For example, the Cataphract 3D is a Davion design. D for Davion.
The Raven 3-L is a Liao design, L for Liao.
The Cataphract mech itself is a Liao design. The 0X being the original (X for experimental), the 1X Liao, 2X Liao, 4X (X for experimental) is by the Davions, 3L and 3LL both Liao, and the 5D is Davion.

Victors. Victor 9K is Kurita. D is Davion. S is Steiner.

Atlases. D is Davion. D-DC just means Davion with Dual Cockpit. K is Kurita. Atlas S2 is Steiner yet S is not. Fun fact: The Atlas S2 has rear-mounted Streak SRM-2s to fire backwards. K had rear-mounted MPLs.

Wow... never knew this! nice to know wich Kurita mech ill buy now

[Koniving]

You're welcome. It's not always 100%, as nothing stops a Steiner from using a Davion variant and so on, but it gives you an idea of which side it was designed for.

(So far the only things I've noticed is that X can technically be anyone, and that Steiner/Davion is interchangeable within a certain period of years - but this I suspect is due to the alliance by marriage).

[Sargon X]

For the sake of the Faction Challenge, isn't "Lone Wolf" also considered a faction?

[Junkman7mgte]

Sargon X, on 22 March 2014 - 06:16 AM, said:

For the sake of the Faction Challenge, isn't "Lone Wolf" also considered a faction?

Yes, look at the standings page, it show LW and Mercs as their own factions.

[ZeProme]

Oh come on, join the real factions! We have an empire! Long live Liao!

[EarlGrey83]

ZeProme, on 22 March 2014 - 07:06 AM, said:

Oh come on, join the real factions! We have an empire! Long live Liao!

My job here is done.

[Ovion]

I couldn't remember who I followed mainly waaay back when (Though I get the feeling it might have been Davion), so I honestly just chose Rasalhague because I liked the logo the best. xD

Their history is fine too though.

I should probably start checking out their subforum too!

[SaltBeef]

There are no clan options Yet! .... unless I am mistaken.

[luxebo]

SaltBeef, on 23 March 2014 - 02:13 AM, said:

There are no clan options Yet! .... unless I am mistaken.

Indeed, not quite yet. I believe they said there will be a total of 7-8 Clans coming in later this year, all of the original Clans and then one other.

[Takashi Uchida]

Which faction is the most 'Murican?

[luxebo]

Takashi Uchida, on 23 March 2014 - 06:17 PM, said:

Which faction is the most 'Murican?

I'd say Davion, closest to North American style there. However, they act/are portrayed pretty honorably in most previous games, so I'm not 100% sure it would be Davion.

[Takashi Uchida]

luxebo, on 23 March 2014 - 06:59 PM, said:

I'd say Davion, closest to North American style there. However, they act/are portrayed pretty honorably in most previous games, so I'm not 100% sure it would be Davion.

I asked the question in-game and someone said "Steiner: big and dumb." ouch lol

[Mycrus]

Having been introduced to BT by the crescent hawks inception - I'm Steiner by heart

[luxebo]

Takashi Uchida, on 23 March 2014 - 07:21 PM, said:

I asked the question in-game and someone said "Steiner: big and dumb." ouch lol

Lol.

Though Steiner is German, they have more American attributes.

[EarlGrey83]

Well, I´d say that the Free Worlds League with their whole democratic and personal freedom for eveyone are probably most American, even though not ethnicaly. (Also, the stylized Eagle as their flag helps )

Davion always gave a more british vibe in my opinion, with all the nobility and stuf. Not for nothing the main Planet is called New Avalon.

[Koniving]

Some Steiners, for a bit of an impression.


Touchy relations. Steiner Colonel and Steiner-Liao ambassador. (Vid quality kinda blows but meh.)


o.O;