64 replies to this topic

[Wingmann OT]

1.- You can't balance -one on one- what was designed to be unbalanced.
2.- This has no meaning at all without the invasion (the strategical layer).

Nonsense.

[Vanguard319]

PaintedWolf, on 14 December 2013 - 09:19 AM, said:

The Crusaders basically led the Clans into a trap, and then split the Clans on a political issue. They even betrayed Clan Smoke Jaguar for political reasons. I do not know what the Wardens would do, but I am not sure Ulric Kerensky would let Smoke Jaguar be Annihilated.

The Truce of Tukkayyid was a big blunder largely because of Crusader overconfidence. The Crusaders never even considered a slow-down in the invasion, against a largely unknown foe. They were so used to using politics to beat the Wardens that they never considered that the Inner Sphere politicians would not play their game.

In any case, they underbid on Luthien and they underbid on Tukkayyid. They did not consider how small scale battles are more tactically intense and while large scale battles are more strategic, so they lost Tukkayyid as large numbers overwhelmed their tactically intense strategems.

Ulric urged them, repeatedly, to bring in more troops and that the battle could be costly- the more he warned them, the more confident the Crusaders seemed to become and he actually used that against them, reserving the "dishonorable" last spot for his very large bid of wolves.

Then the Falcons, in another crazed political ploy, accused Ulric of ******** because he could one day be pitting a technologically equal Inner Sphere against inexperienced Clan troops. The irony is so convoluted- the Crusade itself is what introduced Clan Technology to the Inner Sphere, including Warships. In any case, real ******** eventually takes place amongst the Clans, from the Crusaders very corners in "The Wars of Reaving".

So they accuse the Khan of Clan Wolf, a Kerensky, of ******** against the Clans- the ultimate treason and expect him to step aside. They are aghast, caught completely unprepared when he bids for his defense- bidding all of Clan Wolf. The Falcons even accept. They are so over-confident they even think they can push Kerensky's chosen Clan aside easily.

So basically, the Crusaders had no contigency plans for a stalled invasion of the Inner Sphere at all. Mentally they seemed to have a collective break down in fact, culminating in the bizarre Wars of Reaving in the Home Worlds.

So Crusader Clan Hubris, largely from the Falcons.

Not a bad assessment, however, the Wars of Reaving were perpetrated by the home crusader clans, primarily the Steel Vipers, who were convinced that the invading clans had become corrupted by the Inner Sphere. Essentially, the clans that had holdings in the Inner Sphere were eventually abjured and driven from the clan homeworlds. Ironically, in it's pursuit of cleansing the clans of "*****," several of these Crusader clans were wiped out, including the Vipers who instigated the wars.

Considering the Jade Falcons, Hell's Horses, and the Crusader Wolves have survived into the dark ages, you might say that they adapted to the harsh realities of warfare in the Inner Sphere,The Crusader clans left behind however, unable to continue the invasion (the only sense of unity they had), turned on each other, and ripped themselves apart. (The Star Adders seem to be the only crusader clan left in the homeworlds that wasn't absorbed, annihilated, or abjured by the end of the WoR.)