Bigger units, zero compunction about combined arms use and generally being underhanded shits, and arguably better training than any other pilots extant in the Inner Sphere barring the Mary Sue heroes like Wolf, Kell, Carlyle, Allard-Liao and so on.
That and they hauled everything out of fucking storage for Tukayyid. I'm re-running the numbers and they deployed pretty much the entire modern-day US Army, Marines, and USAF for Tukayyid in terms of troop and equipment numbers. A Level II is roughly two platoons, so a Level III turns out nicely as three companies or a full battalion, a Level IV is six Level III's, so that's an RCT of two regiments... and then a Level V is six of those RCT-sized forces. And they deployed all twelve Level V's to Tukayyid, or seventy-two Regimental Combat Teams. There wasn't a single Successor League in the Inner Sphere that could have stood up to that, and they still got chewed to bits by the Clans.
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You just know these raw numbers of pristine SLDF-era Mechs and WarShips coming out of nowhere must have raised quite some eyebrows across the Inner Sphere high brass.
I mean at some point ComStar could have just said "Yeah we have the best damn army in the Inner Sphere, we control the industrial and technological powerhouses on Terra and we control comms whatchagonnado faggots" and the Successor Houses would have probably just sat there and sulked.
Not really. Because doing that would be the best way to get the Successor States to agree to do something. Namely, to seize all of ComStar's holdings in their territories (those 12 Level Vs were spread pretty thinly across the Inner Sphere before being called to Tukayyid), and then play the time-honored game of "who can nuke Terra the hardest". It would be the kind of unpleasantness ComStar wasn't interested in triggering. And when someone did trigger it, we got the Jihad. Really, why make noise when they could rule from the shadows?
It did earn Primus Myndo Waterly the coveted Stefan Amaris Prize for Outstanding Insane Megalomania Award, though. That trophy usually stays in the Liao family, but Waterly wrestled it away from them for a while because that woman was fucking nuts.
Waterly picked a REALLY bad time to do that. Probably because she was an insane bitch. If ComStar had flopped their dicks on the table before 3028 or so... I dunno. Still enough plot-armored motherfuckers kicking around at that time to cause issues.
If you can ever pull it off (You'll probably end up using cardboard pieces) get together enough players to do the Battle of Tukayyid it's a fucking blast. Make sure the refs are up on the data, make sure that everyone adheres to refit and rearming rules.
Focht really didn't have anywhere near the time he wanted to get things assembled. Hence all of the Clanbuster designs that were field-expedient refits. But that's war for you. If only Waterly hadn't been insane and had instead decided to devote ComStar's resources to fighting with the Inner Sphere, she'd have likely been able to capitalize on all that good will to reform the Star League around ComStar.
You'd think that. But that would not account for the fact that Myndo Waterly was fucking bonkers.
Theodore Kurita was damn good at what he did. That man elevated the Draconis Combine from "memetic weebs" to an actual competent threat. He wasn't perfect by any means, but he was well above average for a Coordinator. Sadly, we can't have the Dracs being competent since it makes the Davions look bad so Horiho wasn't allowed to keep up the good work.
Na. It was a needle pistol, not anything big and awesome like that. But when you've got the balls to personally tell the entire First Circuit of ComStar that the Primus died of said externally induced aneurysm, the only gun big enough to match that would be a NAC/40.
It was a .45 in our hearts.
That's fair. It's a bit like damning with faint praise, but I'll give the guy some credit. He managed to keep the Combine together and remained coordinator for 30+ years. So he wasn't all bad, he just didn't measure up to his father.
Agreed on ComStar, and ol' Teddy Kurita is one of those once-in-a-thousand-years type of guys. I mean, he single-handledly tardwrangled the entire Combine military into the 31st century, and against his old man's objections and efforts. The chances of his heir being able to measure up to his accomplishments is pretty minimal given the Augean tasks Theodore had to deal with. Having an able son and heir to keep things moving forward without imploding is pretty much all he could really ask for given what he accomplished... and that's the one thing Hanse Davion couldn't do in life. We all know who's getting the last laugh in heaven, and it isn't a Davion for once.
