73 replies to this topic

[Arikiel]

I've seen the FWL compared to all sorts of real life countries. As my second favorite faction I wanted to see what everybody else thinks it is and why?

[Zakatak]

Canada.

Multiculturalism, check.
Mid-right Wing idealogies, check.
Mostly caucasians, check.
Democracy, check.
Fighting between provincials and feds, check.
Brutal politics, check.
Not involved in many wars, check.
Free healthcare, check.
Non-threatening flag, check.

FWL is Canada in space.

[Mike Silva]

Marik's military is too powerful to be Canada.

[Arctic Fox]

The Free Worlds League is almost literally the Holy Roman Empire in spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace.

[Zakatak]

Mike Silva, on 13 May 2012 - 12:41 PM, said:

Marik's military is too powerful to be Canada.

Woah woah woah!

We have 120 fighter jets that are only 30 years old! That is... about as much as Belgium.



Although we arguably have the best trained snipers on the planet, as well as the best trained "standard" infantry besides Isreal. And our tanks are top-notch Leaopard 2A6's, which is pretty much the best you can get as of now. Besides that? Ya, we are lacking.

[Mike Silva]

Zakatak, on 13 May 2012 - 12:45 PM, said:

Woah woah woah!

We have 120 fighter jets that are only 30 years old! That is... about as much as Belgium.



Although we arguably have the best trained snipers on the planet, as well as the best trained "standard" infantry besides Isreal. And our tanks are top-notch Leaopard 2A6's, which is pretty much the best you can get as of now. Besides that? Ya, we are lacking.

My honest opinion is that Marik is something of a combination of British colonial states (Australia, Canada, US). Because each of them individually maintain all of the qualities you listed.

I didn't mean to suggest that Canada doesn't have teeth (not the case). Sorry if I came across that way.

Edited by Mike Silva, 13 May 2012 - 12:55 PM.

[Jericho917]

I would love to say the USA. But I think the individual worlds of the FWL retain more power than the states to in the USA. The federal government has a LOT more power over the states than the EU has over individual countries. I would say it is more like the EU than Canada for the same reason. Canada retains a lot of power over the provinces (that’s what you call them right?) And Canada’s military is not exactly “super power” level where the EU most surely is. Not to mention diversity, free healthcare, democracy (there is a more accurate word but I can’t remember PSC 101 was a long time ago,) it just fits.

[Deathz Jester]

I thought House Marik, Davion, and FRR had "bits&pieces" of American & Canadian influence?

[Mike Silva]

Iron Harlequin, on 13 May 2012 - 01:13 PM, said:

I thought House Marik, Davion, and FRR had "bits&pieces" of American & Canadian influence?

I can't speak to FRR, but I'm under the impression that Davion is very heavily flavored by feudal western Europe, where Marik is more modern western style democracy.

However, if that were 100% truth then there would be no "House Marik" where one particular line tends to maintain power over a number of decades or centuries. If there's an explanation for this I'd love to hear it; it's something I never quite understood.

[Thorn Hallis]

Austria-Hungary

[Arctic Fox]

I don't think there are that many American/Candian influences in Davion and the FRR. The Terran Hegemony is was culturally based on North America, James McKenna was even Canadian, but they don't exist anymore.

Mike Silva, on 13 May 2012 - 01:20 PM, said:

I can't speak to FRR, but I'm under the impression that Davion is very heavily flavored by feudal western Europe, where Marik is more modern western style democracy.

However, if that were 100% truth then there would be no "House Marik" where one particular line tends to maintain power over a number of decades or centuries. If there's an explanation for this I'd love to hear it; it's something I never quite understood.

It's because that while the Captain-General, originally a military post but in de-facto control of the League due to emergency powers, is elected by Parliament, the constitution gives the Marik family the right of first refusal to the title. So, in practice, it's basically a monarchy like everyone else. This is yet another similarity to the Holy Roman Empire.

[Mike Silva]

The idea of a written constitution giving exclusive power to a single family over all others seems incredibly foreign to me, and seemingly counter to what a constitution is supposed to exist to provide in the first place.

Just a thought, not really relevant to the conversation about the FWL.

[Arctic Fox]

Mike Silva, on 13 May 2012 - 01:36 PM, said:

The idea of a written constitution giving exclusive power to a single family over all others seems incredibly foreign to me, and seemingly counter to what a constitution is supposed to exist to provide in the first place.

Just a thought, not really relevant to the conversation about the FWL.

The Constitution doesn't give exclusive power to the Mariks, since Captain-General was originally a purely military title with Parliament still in control of the League. It wasn't until Resolution 288, passed just before the First Succession War, that the Captain-General (and, by extension, House Marik) was given absolute powers 'for the duration of the crisis'.

Edited by Arctic Fox, 13 May 2012 - 01:46 PM.

[Mike Silva]

Arctic Fox, on 13 May 2012 - 01:45 PM, said:

The Constitution doesn't give exclusive power to the Mariks, since Captain-General was originally a purely military title with Parliament still in control of the League. It wasn't until Resolution 288, passed just before the First Succession War, that the Captain-General (and, by extension, House Marik) was given absolute powers 'for the duration of the crisis'.

Well yeah, but when the crisis doesn't end after several centuries....

[ice trey]

Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to classify the FWL with any "Futuristic-version-of-existing-culture" trope, which therefore also is part of why it suffers in popularity as far as the Inner Sphere goes. You've got some Prussia, some Spain, some India, and a whole lot of everything else. It makes it unique in the inner sphere as a strong unity of multiple cultures without one that overrides all the others, but at the same time, that's also it's biggest shortcoming. People want something that you can describe in a sentence while sounding cool.

Fedsuns are "The space Americans/Goodguys" (although they're really space western-europe, since the USA, in Battletech, thought that space travel was a bunch of hooey until it was too late to really make a name for themselves), the Dracs are the Space Samurai, the Liao are the paranoid Space Reds (Chinese language and aesthetics, North Korean mentalities, with a smattering of Russia), and the Steiners are the German/Scotts-Irish pompous rich guys. With the FWL, all they have to them are being "The proof that Democracy doesn't work well in space" - and that doesn't sell well.

I could imagine the folks that get into the Battletech universe because they love the Politicking that goes on would like the FWL, and perhaps because of the neat toys they get, but in general, the FWL tends to not stand out to new players.

[Atlai]

Zakatak, on 13 May 2012 - 12:40 PM, said:

Canada.

Multiculturalism, check.
Mid-right Wing idealogies, check.
Mostly caucasians, check.
Democracy, check.
Fighting between provincials and feds, check.
Brutal politics, check.
Not involved in many wars, check.
Free healthcare, check.
Non-threatening flag, check.

FWL is Canada in space.

The maple leaf is..................nevermind i cant find anything threatening about it

[Mike Silva]

Mason West, on 13 May 2012 - 02:37 PM, said:

The maple leaf is..................nevermind i cant find anything threatening about it

If you squint your eyes it kinda looks like a throwing star.

[Zakatak]

It isn't actually a Maple Leaf, it is a drawing of the Planet Killer weapon we designed in the 1950's. The reason we put it on our flag is so we could have deniability if it was revealed to the public. Hopefully the government doesn't read my post, since the whole "happy northern democracy" thing is all just a facade. It is quite brutal over here.

Edited by Zakatak, 13 May 2012 - 02:56 PM.

[Mike Silva]

LOL

[Gigaton]

Early USA, classical Greece, medieval Italy and later HRE.

Edited by Gigaton, 13 May 2012 - 08:20 PM.