11 replies to this topic

[Unreliable Mercenary]

On the subject of mech paint! I know a lot of salvaging takes place during operations within this universe, however I am curious if there are any instances of Inner Sphere pilots salvaging clan mechs and painting them up with house colors for certain battles?

I remember in the mech commander games you could slowly aquire clan tech over time through salvage, as well as entire mechs, but always wondered what kind of personal touches the pilots would make to these mechs to perhaps mock the clan mechwarriors they faced.

[El Bandito]

They simply painted their unit colors and emblems on salvaged Clan mechs. Sure there were more personal touches, but I do not remember any noteworthy character in the novels specifically painted his mech in a way to mock the Clanners.

Maybe with the exception of Kai Allard Liao. He purposely painted his mech white in the Trial of Refusal on Strana Mechty so the Clan Wolf Khan Vlad Ward will single him out for challenge.

[Metus regem]

Also, the houses really didn't put Clan units back into the front line units, they were often sent back to the research labs to be pulled arapt and studded....

[C E Dwyer]

One of the Battle tech lore moments that makes sense.

Unless your given one, complete with access to spares, sending it back to do research, and find ways you can counter clan tech with IS tech that can be created, or already built, you'd have a mech with after a while no munitions, and no way to repair, other than to tack a few pieces of armour in place. so in combat conditions it would be less than useless, after a month or so.

Far to valuable, and all unit leaders would see it as so.

[The Basilisk]

Lorewise there are certain celebritys driving Clan mechs during clanwars having them painted to unit or house colors. Normaly Clan tech and items are neither cervicable nor compatible with Inner Sphere tech. So... Mercs would normaly not have Clan tech save they are sponsored by Wolfs dragoons or get sponsored by great houses.

[FLG 01]

During the Clan Invasion the IS house forces had very few opportunities to salvage Clan Mechs: Twycross, Wolcott, Luthien (and in the last case, most of the salvage went to the 6 regiments of the Hounds and Dragoons).

It was also very difficult for the IS to maintain Omnimechs. The Blue Star Irregulars, one of the best merc units and A rated, had to rely on the Dragoons to repair their Omnimechs in the mid-50ies.

In the timeframe of MWO, very very few individuals in the IS would have an Omni. Over time, this changed due to raiding and the Operations Bulldog&Serpent.

[Metus regem]

The Basilisk, on 02 January 2016 - 05:24 AM, said:

Lorewise there are certain celebritys driving Clan mechs during clanwars having them painted to unit or house colors. Normaly Clan tech and items are neither cervicable nor compatible with Inner Sphere tech. So... Mercs would normaly not have Clan tech save they are sponsored by Wolfs dragoons or get sponsored by great houses.

There is even lore that has the Houses threatening to go after a Merc unit that didn't turn over Clan tech to be studied...

[Lykaon]

FLG 01, on 02 January 2016 - 05:29 AM, said:

During the Clan Invasion the IS house forces had very few opportunities to salvage Clan Mechs: Twycross, Wolcott, Luthien (and in the last case, most of the salvage went to the 6 regiments of the Hounds and Dragoons).

It was also very difficult for the IS to maintain Omnimechs. The Blue Star Irregulars, one of the best merc units and A rated, had to rely on the Dragoons to repair their Omnimechs in the mid-50ies.

In the timeframe of MWO, very very few individuals in the IS would have an Omni. Over time, this changed due to raiding and the Operations Bulldog&Serpent.

Another event that allowed Inner Sphere units to successfully field clan tech mechs was Clan Diamond Shark's extremely liberal merchant cast.Following the truce clan Diamond Shark merchant cast jumpships began to openly trade with the Inner Sphere.Initially limiting sales of strictly nonmilitary products but later as the post invasion Inner Sphere reestablished a new Star League Diamond Shark merchants began to sell clan equipment in the Inner Sphere ( being a warden clan the Diamond Sharks chose to recognize the new Star League as an official entity.) The Diamond Sharks event went as far as designing military products specificly to sell in the Inner Sphere. By the time of the FedCom civil wars (mid to late 3060s) several Inner Sphere military units maintained clan omnimechs or intergrated clan tech weapons on standard Inner Sphere Battlemechs.

The earliest examples of Inner Sphere use of clan tech equipment would be Wolf's Dragoons (being a defection of a clan unit to the Inner Sphere) Snord's Irregulars (also tied to the Dragoons as having clan origins) and the handfull of clan omnimechs gifted to the Inner Sphere scions of the great houses by Wolf's Dragoons during the summit on Outreach during the lull in the the Invasion while the clans elected a new Ilkhan after the previous lkhan was killed.

Later the refusal war ( late 3056-57) between clan Jade Falcon and clan Wolf would split clan Wolf into two factions. One led by Phelan Kell Ward (son of famed mercenary commander Morgan Kell) and the other Wolf faction being led by Vlad Ward.

Phelan's wolves in exile took up residence on Arc Royal the Kell Hounds homeworld effectivley placing a large and organized clan force on the Inner Sphere side of the fence so to speak.

Edited by Lykaon, 02 January 2016 - 10:59 AM.

[Skoll]

In Close Quarters, Heart of Chaos, and Black Dragon, a mercenary unit named the 17th Recon Regiment aka Camacho's Caballeros had a captured Mad Cat that they put a custom paint job on. It was nicknamed Great White and it had sharks teeth painted around the nose like old WWII fighters.

Edited by Skoll, 02 January 2016 - 11:02 AM.

[Malcolm Vordermark]

Yes, Clan tech was salvaged and used by IS houses and mercenary units. During the war there would have been a lot of pressure to study this technology, rather than outfitting a single mech with the technology.

As for mocking the Clans, Clan warriors became enraged when they saw the symbol of the reborn Star League on IS forces.

Edited by Rouken, 02 January 2016 - 11:42 AM.

[Sandpit]

The Basilisk, on 02 January 2016 - 05:24 AM, said:

Lorewise there are certain celebritys driving Clan mechs during clanwars having them painted to unit or house colors. Normaly Clan tech and items are neither cervicable nor compatible with Inner Sphere tech. So... Mercs would normaly not have Clan tech save they are sponsored by Wolfs dragoons or get sponsored by great houses.

those were generally the "heroes" of the I.S.
Those hero mechs we have are prime examples of celebrity pilots. Those mechs were the equivalent of seeing the Red Baron coming at you in WW1

[Escef]

Metus regem, on 02 January 2016 - 05:03 AM, said:

Also, the houses really didn't put Clan units back into the front line units, they were often sent back to the research labs to be pulled arapt and studded....

Yes and no. A lot of salvage from clan mechs did go back to research facilities, but by the late 3050s there were several elite house units that were fielding some salvaged clantech on their Inner Sphere mechs, or even whole, functional clan omnimechs. (One of the reasons for the Combine's omnimech program was to replace the clan mechs that some of their units were fielding that were constantly getting deadlined due to maintenance issues.)