Did you guys really necro a thread back to life?

Wow. OK I guess we're doing this.
Void Angel, on 29 June 2025 - 11:04 PM, said:
EVERYONE hates Katherine - she's one of the most hateable people in fiction, I think. And Steiner is one of the least-likeable Houses, thematically. Marik is Space Democracy Gone Wrong, Davion is Tactical Excellence, Kurita is Space Samurai, and Liao is Machiavellian Space China. Steiner's thing? They compensate for their general officers' incompetence with massive industrial power. The only less-likeable House is Liao, since their thing for much of the game's history is playing Stabbity McBackerson pretty much as a constant theme.
Nothing to really disagree with here. I could debate some finer points but as I have a long way to go, I won't put in that effort for that.
Void Angel, on 29 June 2025 - 11:04 PM, said:
For the Clans... well, I used to like them well enough. I mean, they're the aggressors, and they're screwing up what would probably have been the end of the Succession Wars - with FedCom's dominance and the recovery of the Helm memory core, the Federated Commonwealth could overwhelm both its military opponents and ComStar's clandestine campaign to stop technological recovery. But they seemed cool, if a little constrained.
Then I took some political science in college.
The Clans are, literally, fascist space Mongols. All the components are there: authoritarian rule; violence as the means of choice to solve all problems; an entire cultural system geared for warfare; a harkening back to a (largely mythical) better time - and an enemy to fight and blame for the current state of things. They've even got racism, in a fictional universe where racism seems to have largely ceased to exist (sometimes replaced by political bigotry, but still.)
Clans were the aggressors? You think the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere were living in peace singing kumbaya around the camp fire and the Clans showed up screaming, 'GET REKT!".
Do you know about the Tintavel Massacre? Don't get me started on the DC. Have you heard of the Kentares Massacre? Or the Santiago Massacre? Hanse Davion Started a Succession War as a wedding present FFS. Maybe you should read up on those things. I won't go into the other Houses because if I do I'll be writing a book. Instead I will, as I always have, quote directly from the source material. This is what the "non-violent, non-aggressive" Great Houses were up to as described by Classic Batttletech Universe sourcebook page 9 in the chapter "A Brief History of the Inner Sphere":
Quote
In the resulting power vacuum, the rulers of the realms now called the Successor States fought endless, brutal wars, each seeking to re-establish the Star League under his own leadership. In three hundred years of conflict, the Successor Lords accomplished little save to blast humankind virtually back to the Stone Age. By the time the third of the so-called Succession Wars ended, humanity had lost nearly every technological advance that the Star League had made possible; only stringent restrictions on destroying JumpShips, DropShips, BattleMechs and other irreplaceable technologies of war allowed interstellar combat to continue. As the Successor States battered each other senseless, the fighting ground down to endless border skirmishes in which no combatant gained significant advantage
Sounds real peaceful to me
Void Angel, on 29 June 2025 - 11:04 PM, said:
What follows is a repetition of history; a new version of the early Succession Wars, fought with technology centuries more advanced and far more destructive, and by people with little regard for the Ares Accords - or preserving Hyperpulse generators. The results would be catastrophic; it's unlikely that mankind would not survive - the vast breadth of its diaspora almost guarantees some survivors. But the collapse of interstellar economies would be devastating; and if we lose FTL altogether, unknown trillions would perish. Technology would be battered back even further than before, and climbing back might take so long that the Star League - or the Clans - are remembered only as embellished, irrelevant legends.
People with little regard for the Ares Accords? The Clans entire way of fighting is designed to protect civilians from danger. Only warriors are allowed to do battle. The fighting area is cleared so no innocents get hurt. They don't do sneak attacks. They announce when they are coming to fight and for the record they don't use NUKES.
Edited by Jaroth Corbett, 09 July 2025 - 09:10 AM.