Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[A_Callow_Youth]

*heavy breathing sounds*

Behold: the MAD-BR-O OmniMarauder

It is stupid, expensive, utterly tasteless, and downright beautiful, the perfect mech for the villain with too much money.

Oh, and... that. Near as I can tell, he's a code monkey, with surprisingly little presence on the mod's discord. The entire BTA team has self-inserts as an optional starting crew, and "Blue Winds" is because they use their usernames as character names.

Seriously, just take the voice actors team instead, it has George Ledoux.

 

[BlackDragoons]

Behold: the MAD-BR-O OmniMarauder
View attachment 2326090
It is stupid, expensive, utterly tasteless, and downright beautiful, the perfect mech for the villain with too much money.

Oh, and... that. Near as I can tell, he's a code monkey, with surprisingly little presence on the mod's discord. The entire BTA team has self-inserts as an optional starting crew, and "Blue Winds" is because they use their usernames as character names.

Seriously, just take the voice actors team instead, it has George Ledoux.

I see "You mad bro" memes regardless if the person fielding the mech wins or loses.

 

[Snekposter]

I thought about using Khyber Pass as an analogy, but while guns are fairly easy to make by hand, high-tech free-electron lasers and multi-ton autoloading 120mm cannons aren't really something you bang out in a backyard workshop. So you do need a considerable industrial footprint to even begin selling components or whole vehicles.

I suppose the best analogy would actually be buying shit on Wish.com. You place an order for ten suspiciously cheap Defiance B3M Medium Lasers and eventually a crate with between nine and eleven Deviance BƐM arrives at your depot. The polarity on the contacts is reversed, the cooling fins are gummed together with silicone, the capacitors arrived pre-bulged, the focusing lenses are misaligned, and activating the calibration routine fires the laser (poor Jenkins almost got vaporized when the team found that out), but with a bit of elbow grease, spare parts and copious amounts of cursing you can tweak these lumps of circuits into serviceable Medium Lasers.


Well, BattleMechs and Fusion Engines were stated as being rare and difficult to manufacture because their factories were deliberately targeted for capture/destruction through the Succession Wars, but apparently conventional vehicles were still in widespread use. After all, a tank is a much simpler machine to build than a BattleMech, internal combustion engines are a dime a dozen, and as the Soviets were so eager to demonstrate in WWII you can convert heavy vehicle factories into tank factories with a lot less effort than building a whole new factory from the ground up. Even more so if you build said farm equipment factory with quick conversion in mind.

The standard 3025-era weapons were also still very common: the three grades of laser, the PPC, the four sizes of autocannon, the three sizes of SRM launcher and the four sizes of LRM launcher; they are all very rugged, very well-refined pieces of technology. The processes required to manufacture these weapons and their ammo (where applicable) are widely known and, at this point, likely in the Inner Sphere's equivalent of Public Domain. So anyone with the capital and the resources to build a laser factory or a LRM factory could do so, and likely get a few lucrative contracts with planetary or regional governments.

Well, from my understanding during the absolute chaos that was the First SW, Second SW, and a good chunk of the Third Succession War, manufacturing for all of the lesser equipment had taken as big a hit as anything else. Hence the emphasis on BattleMechs since if you only have so many working weapons it makes sense to put them on your most most multi-role combat platforms, namely BattleMechs. However, since so much of the super-advanced tech that goes into a 'Mech was LosTech or close to, there was a hard limit on production numbers since things like neurohelmets, gyros, myomers etc. are all pretty hard to replace, never mind the fusion engines. But as things stabilized (as much as the Inner Sphere ever actually stabilizes, that is) and new factories were able to open up, the less advanced stuff like the basic 3025 weapons were able to start entering production in numbers greater than mere replacement, leading to actual reserves. That even includes fusion engines, since the Patton, Rommel, and Brutus were all pre-Helm, brand-new CV designs that used FE's. Phew, 'tism over.

It is stupid, expensive, utterly tasteless, and downright beautiful, the perfect mech for the villain with too much money.

*Sea Fox hand rubbing Intensifies*
More seriously, by the 32nd Century the IS was able to manufacture ClanTech on its own. XTRO Davion set during the waning years of the Jihad mentions Clan-spec equipment being custom-made at R&D labs for prototyping purposes, after all.

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

*Sea Fox hand rubbing Intensifies*
More seriously, by the 32nd Century the IS was able to manufacture ClanTech on its own. XTRO Davion set during the waning years of the Jihad mentions Clan-spec equipment being custom-made at R&D labs for prototyping purposes, after all.

IS-produced Clan-spec gear has been coming online, but it's been rather slow and piecemeal. If my information is good, it's not so much a problem of knowledge base as it is that they haven't refined the manufacturing process to the point where they can build it themselves for less than it costs to import.

 

[Snekposter]

IS-produced Clan-spec gear has been coming online, but it's been rather slow and piecemeal. If my information is good, it's not so much a problem of knowledge base as it is that they haven't refined the manufacturing process to the point where they can build it themselves for less than it costs to import.

Makes sense to me. We all know who the one big exporter of that is *cough*, so lore-wise it will be neat to see how that ends up shaking out once they start losing their market share to IS production. Angry Merchant Noises have both started and ended wars.

Random thought: you know, given the hard-on the Clans have for all sorts of ancient history, odds are pretty damn high the Sea Foxes have ditched zellbrigen in favor of the Rules of Acquisition. I can't think of a place other than the Inner Sphere where Rules 34 and 35 apply so strongly. Well, maybe 1700's Earth.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Well, from my understanding during the absolute chaos that was the First SW, Second SW, and a good chunk of the Third Succession War, manufacturing for all of the lesser equipment had taken as big a hit as anything else. Hence the emphasis on BattleMechs since if you only have so many working weapons it makes sense to put them on your most most multi-role combat platforms, namely BattleMechs. However, since so much of the super-advanced tech that goes into a 'Mech was LosTech or close to, there was a hard limit on production numbers since things like neurohelmets, gyros, myomers etc. are all pretty hard to replace, never mind the fusion engines. But as things stabilized (as much as the Inner Sphere ever actually stabilizes, that is) and new factories were able to open up, the less advanced stuff like the basic 3025 weapons were able to start entering production in numbers greater than mere replacement, leading to actual reserves. That even includes fusion engines, since the Patton, Rommel, and Brutus were all pre-Helm, brand-new CV designs that used FE's. Phew, 'tism over.

The descriptions are kind of all over the place, because BattleTech wasn't supposed to have vehicles starting out. So you have this situation where the first three Succession Wars are originally described as being fought almost exclusively with BattleMechs (since they're the stars of the setting), but as time goes on and more supplemental material is released there's a lot of retconning and "vehicles have always been there, we just never mentioned them". You see that a lot in the Technical Readout 3026, which was all about vehicles. For example,

(Guardian Fighter and Warrior H-7 Attack Helicopter, Technical Readout: 2026, pages 12 and 16)

That Guardian was first deployed in 2831. That's right at the start of the Second Succession War, which means it was still in the design and/or prototyping stage on the run up to it. The Warrior was built to replace much rarer and difficult to produce BattleMechs and AeroSpace assets.

In short, the Great Houses try to operate with BattleMechs as often as they can because ton-for-ton 'mechs are simply much better than anything else if you already have them at hand simply because they're BattleMechs (and have that inherent toughness and terrain-crossing capability). But if they can't buy or build 'mechs in the amounts need, they'll absolutely go for vehicles and have done so for a very long time. The technology to build them or their weapons was never lost or even under threat of being lost. It's just that a manufacturing plant that can build BattleMechs and their components is so absurdly more expensive than one that can build vehicles that even a Successor State won't have a lot of them, so it's comparatively easy to cripple 'Mech production compared to conventional vehicles. And, since it's a setting that requires constant warfare, a lot of these 'mech plants are close to the border zones instead of being buried deep within the nation's territory.

(The key is: don't try to make sense of BattleTech's strategic considerations. The setting doesn't work if you look at it too closely. If the Successor States had an ounce of common sense between them they would all have either moved their manufacturing facilities or built new ones as far away from their borders as possible. But it seems every other raid or border skirmish is over a "'mech manufacturing plant" one or two jumps from the border.)

Behold: the MAD-BR-O OmniMarauder
View attachment 2326090
It is stupid, expensive, utterly tasteless, and downright beautiful, the perfect mech for the villain with too much money.

Dear God, that thing is hideous. It's an insult to all that's good and holy about mech design. And yet I'm fascinated by it.

And it's actually a Marauder variant that can fit that spinal mount weapon on the center torso itself. Look at that.

 

[BlackDragoons]

So i hit like 20 stores in my area trying to find any sort of battletech minis. Pretty much FUBAR at this point.

 

[Balr0g]

IS-produced Clan-spec gear has been coming online, but it's been rather slow and piecemeal. If my information is good, it's not so much a problem of knowledge base as it is that they haven't refined the manufacturing process to the point where they can build it themselves for less than it costs to import.

The word of Blake was able to produce small quantities of clan made weapons at the end of the Jihad and they put them into their spectral LAM series.After all clan weapons made the most sense there since they are more compact which is crucial for LAM's. Though LAM's are dead and gone now.

The funny thing about the Bttletech storyline is that there exists so many versions of the era of tech decline. First it'slike

Yeah the 1st and 2nd Sw cost the Is their advanced tech and now production has come to a crawl.
Well actually the lostech weapons still exist in small quantities and can still be maintained
Oh wait there are still some big factories churning out Mechs but vehicles are now only build with ICE becaue fusion engines are destined for Mechs

The one consistent point is that the 1st SW did cost the Is their precious tech base because the Cameron's took a lot of measures to prevent the proliferation of advanced tech into the IS. And those that did were dependent on imports from the Hegemony. Hence when the Hegmony fell and the Successor states blew what was left to bits (plus Comstar being Comstar murdering scientists across the IS with Operation Holy Shroud) thsoe producers had no supply. If you think about it, a lot of planets within the old Hegemony (for example New Earth, Caph, New Home, New Dallas) were major production sites for advanced tech. Turn those planets to rubble or radioactive wastelands and suddenly everyone suffers. Plus Comstar putting the Terran system under "lockdown" and you can somehow understand how shortages of Jumpships or replacement parts are created

 

[Corn Flakes]

So i hit like 20 stores in my area trying to find any sort of battletech minis. Pretty much FUBAR at this point.

BattleTech is about as niche these days as it's ever been. Back in the 00s it was relatively easy to find BT minis (I found a lot of cheap pewter knockoffs) off the back of the push Wizkids made with MechClix. There's a reason I got used to playing with 4th ed. box set-style cutouts on stands. Still, as @RomanesEuntDomus (I think?) showed, you can get some pretty good shit online.

The word of Blake was able to produce small quantities of clan made weapons at the end of the Jihad and they put them into their spectral LAM series.After all clan weapons made the most sense there since they are more compact which is crucial for LAM's. Though LAM's are dead and gone now.

The funny thing about the Bttletech storyline is that there exists so many versions of the era of tech decline. First it'slike

Yeah the 1st and 2nd Sw cost the Is their advanced tech and now production has come to a crawl.
Well actually the lostech weapons still exist in small quantities and can still be maintained
Oh wait there are still some big factories churning out Mechs but vehicles are now only build with ICE becaue fusion engines are destined for Mechs

The one consistent point is that the 1st SW did cost the Is their precious tech base because the Cameron's took a lot of measures to prevent the proliferation of advanced tech into the IS. And those that did were dependent on imports from the Hegemony. Hence when the Hegmony fell and the Successor states blew what was left to bits (plus Comstar being Comstar murdering scientists across the IS with Operation Holy Shroud) thsoe producers had no supply. If you think about it, a lot of planets within the old Hegemony (for example New Earth, Caph, New Home, New Dallas) were major production sites for advanced tech. Turn those planets to rubble or radioactive wastelands and suddenly everyone suffers. Plus Comstar putting the Terran system under "lockdown" and you can somehow understand how shortages of Jumpships or replacement parts are created

The setting suffers from the usual problem with long-running games: the developers need to keep adding content in order to keep the fanbase engaged and buying the product. But they still have to keep the base game relevant so the setting ends up in this strange state of bloat where new things are always coming out, but nothing every gets removed or phased out.

Really, by the mid-3100s, even with the Jihad, no one but the Peripheriest of Periphery units should be using any of the standard Inner Sphere 3025-era equipment. Just like no military these days uses M1 Garands or Kar98s. Technology should march on, some things should be considered obsolete. Even if the new equipment comes with downsides (usually heat), the new designs should just account for these downsides in their search for more lethality. And yes, I'm arguing for powercreep. BattleTech can already be split into eras, so whatever someone designs for 3150 has no bearing on what people running pre-Clan Invasion games do.

The thing that's actually missing from BattleTech's power creep is better armor technology. Shit like Hardened Armor or Ferro-Lamellor Armor are gimmicks that try to get around the [2 * Internal structure] limit maximum armor values 'Mechs in BattleTech are limited by. Armor is always losing the arms race, and there's never been anything like the Cold War developments in composite and reactive armor, everything that's happened in BattleTech has been fairly minor and gimmicky, with large downsides. Meanwhile, single weapons slinging 10 or even 15 damage a turn are a dime a dozen in the latest TROs. This skew between firepower and defense makes things feel unbalanced when they really shouldn't be.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

(The key is: don't try to make sense of BattleTech's strategic considerations. The setting doesn't work if you look at it too closely. If the Successor States had an ounce of common sense between them they would all have either moved their manufacturing facilities or built new ones as far away from their borders as possible. But it seems every other raid or border skirmish is over a "'mech manufacturing plant" one or two jumps from the border.)

Defiance Hesperus is a great example. It's very central in the Inner Sphere, so it's threatened by a couple of other states that could attempt to blitz deep into the Lyran Commonwealth to cut off Hesperus and annex it. And if that's not bad enough, the Skye seperatists are just around the corner and have tried a couple dozen times to grab Hesperus, cause it's such a juicy target.

The only possible explanation to not just tuck away something like that in the deepest confines of the LC core land would be that the necessary infrastructure for such a large production facility is so vast and so dependent on everything lightyears around it, that it can't be recreated anywhere else, even with a shitton of resources and time.
Still a rather flimsy excuse, but at least some excuse. After all, this gives us the pretense we need to dust off our trusty stompy robots to kick butt and take names.

BattleTech is about as niche these days as it's ever been. Back in the 00s it was relatively easy to find BT minis (I found a lot of cheap pewter knockoffs) off the back of the push Wizkids made with MechClix. There's a reason I got used to playing with 4th ed. box set-style cutouts on stands. Still, as @RomanesEuntDomus (I think?) showed, you can get some pretty good shit online

About a year and a half ago, I stumbled over my old mech miniatures (yeah, all 4 of them) and I was reminded of the good times when I played BT with a bro back in school and how I, being a poorfag, was never able to buy more of the mechs that I love, like the Atlas, Devastator and so on...
So I checked online, thinking that I might find a handful of miniatures in some obscure part of the internet, that might still have a small collection of very old mechs around. I simply didn't expect to have much variety to choose from. And lo and behold, a shop that had virtually every mech I ever wanted... and then some.
Now I have a collection of like 40 mechs... and like 20 CVs.

You can order them from IWM directly, I order mine from a German shop called Fantasywelt, they even got an English page, maybe they deliver to your neck of the woods, too?
But apparently, there's a major issue with shipping from china for many suppliers due to the Chink Stink, that's why many miniature shops ran dry.

 

[Snekposter]

Defiance Hesperus is a great example. It's very central in the Inner Sphere, so it's threatened by a couple of other states that could attempt to blitz deep into the Lyran Commonwealth to cut off Hesperus and annex it. And if that's not bad enough, the Skye seperatists are just around the corner and have tried a couple dozen times to grab Hesperus, cause it's such a juicy target.

The only possible explanation to not just tuck away something like that in the deepest confines of the LC core land would be that the necessary infrastructure for such a large production facility is so vast and so dependent on everything lightyears around it, that it can't be recreated anywhere else, even with a shitton of resources and time.
Still a rather flimsy excuse, but at least some excuse. After all, this gives us the pretense we need to dust off our trusty stompy robots to kick butt and take names.

Pretty much. I mean even during WW2 you had Willow Run, which was over three million square feet in size (325,160 square meters for you Eurofags here), which isn't exactly the sort of thing that can be picked up and moved, nor could the railyards that led to it, nor the component factories that used the rail lines to ship parts for final assembly... That Defiance Industries plant on Hesperus is probably close to the size of a small city if not larger, complete with dormitories, amenities, etc.

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

So, here's a thing that's been going down:

The truth about “Faith McClosky”

I write true crime, I never thought I’d be writing about myself playing the role of a real-life victim. For those of you that don’t know me, I write in a lot of different genres. One science …

blainepardoe.wordpress.com

Over the last couple years, military historian, BattleTech author, and surprisingly based guy Blaine Lee Pardoe has been on the receiving end of a one-man cancel crusade, which reached "credible threats of violence" level earlier this year with the announcement of his newest book, Blue Dawn, a 2nd American Civil War thriller set in future Current Year. Long story short, Pardoe has survived attempts to get him fired from both CGL and his publisher, has received a restraining order against the person in question, now keeps a loaded gun in his house, and refuses to bow to crazy slanderous leftists.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Pretty much. I mean even during WW2 you had Willow Run, which was over three million square feet in size (325,160 square meters for you Eurofags here), which isn't exactly the sort of thing that can be picked up and moved, nor could the railyards that led to it, nor the component factories that used the rail lines to ship parts for final assembly... That Defiance Industries plant on Hesperus is probably close to the size of a small city if not larger, complete with dormitories, amenities, etc.

It's only a shame the Clans are the Space Russians in BattleTech. If any of the Successor States had been Soviet-themed you'd have seen everything getting ripped out of the ground, loaded into Overlords, and moved into the Space Urals, as far from the frontlines as possible even before Minoru Kurita finished saying "I'm the First Lord now, suckers!" back in 2786.

 

[White Devil]

So, here's a thing that's been going down:

The truth about “Faith McClosky”

I write true crime, I never thought I’d be writing about myself playing the role of a real-life victim. For those of you that don’t know me, I write in a lot of different genres. One science …

blainepardoe.wordpress.com

Over the last couple years, military historian, BattleTech author, and surprisingly based guy Blaine Lee Pardoe has been on the receiving end of a one-man cancel crusade, which reached "credible threats of violence" level earlier this year with the announcement of his newest book, Blue Dawn, a 2nd American Civil War thriller set in future Current Year. Long story short, Pardoe has survived attempts to get him fired from both CGL and his publisher, has received a restraining order against the person in question, now keeps a loaded gun in his house, and refuses to bow to crazy slanderous leftists.

Interesting. I had no idea any of this was going down.

Going to pick up that Blue Dawn book later this month though just to support Pardoe.

 

[Snekposter]

It's only a shame the Clans are the Space Russians in BattleTech. If any of the Successor States had been Soviet-themed you'd have seen everything getting ripped out of the ground, loaded into Overlords, and moved into the Space Urals, as far from the frontlines as possible even before Minoru Kurita finished saying "I'm the First Lord now, suckers!" back in 2786.

Even then that's just the Defiance Industries plant I was talking about. Kincaid Defense Industries had a feeder plant which was able to produce enough DHS for the FedSuns and skim plenty off the top for covert sale to the Cappies, and there's multiple battles on Hesperus II where sieges were broken thanks to recruits hopping in fresh-off-the-line 'Mechs like it was Stalingrad. To quote from Sarna:

South Whitman features the Melrose Valley complex, stretching across nearly a thousand kilometers of the Sulden Uplands (with Doering Electronics), and the heavily terraced mountain slopes of Maria's Elegy, the capital largest city on Hesperus II and also the location of the spaceport, and the HPG station at the spaceport. These are the only regions with fertile soil suitable for cultivation, but more arable land is not needed considering the planet's tiny population. The city of Maldon is also nearby (although it was described as "on the far side of the planet")

With the opening shots of the Reunification War, the Star League reached an agreement with Archon Viola Steiner in 2577 to construct a factory jointly shared by both parties to ensure proper resupply of 'Mechs during the Periphery campaigns. To protect the factories from assault or sabotage, workers spent ten years hollowing out one of the Myoo Mountains of the South Whitman continent with the factories built inside.

You ain't evacuating shit from Hesperus II.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Even then that's just the Defiance Industries plant I was talking about. Kincaid Defense Industries had a feeder plant which was able to produce enough DHS for the FedSuns and skim plenty off the top for covert sale to the Cappies, and there's multiple battles on Hesperus II where sieges were broken thanks to recruits hopping in fresh-off-the-line 'Mechs like it was Stalingrad. To quote from Sarna:


You ain't evacuating shit from Hesperus II.

Not that you need to evacuate anything anymore. Except maybe skilled staff, if you have the time. After three Succession Wars, mostly everybody was happy to just fight near the factories. If you lose the planet, you can always try to conquer it again later, and if you raze the factory now there's a good chance it will still be razed when you show up again. And even if you can't capture and hold the planet, you can just drop in, smush the defenders, raid their stores, and rocket out before enemy reinforcements show up. That's one of the reasons the Jihad was so shocking. The Blakists were doing shit everybody else just accepted was just not part of the game anymore.

The Ares Conventions may not be followed anymore, but they did legitimize war as just another thing nations do to one another, without really requiring a casus belli. Someone has something you want just across the border? A factory? A rare-earth metals mine? Particularly juicy sex-workers? Drop some 'mechs, defeat the defenders, and either capture the world for yourself, or load the 'mechs/lanthanides/bitches into the dropships and bring the haul back to your own territory. No need to make up any excuses, unless you're going for a huge Succession War-style offensive.

 

[Snekposter]

Not that you need to evacuate anything anymore. Except maybe skilled staff, if you have the time. After three Succession Wars, mostly everybody was happy to just fight near the factories. If you lose the planet, you can always try to conquer it again later, and if you raze the factory now there's a good chance it will still be razed when you show up again. And even if you can't capture and hold the planet, you can just drop in, smush the defenders, raid their stores, and rocket out before enemy reinforcements show up. That's one of the reasons the Jihad was so shocking. The Blakists were doing shit everybody else just accepted was just not part of the game anymore.

The Ares Conventions may not be followed anymore, but they did legitimize war as just another thing nations do to one another, without really requiring a casus belli. Someone has something you want just across the border? A factory? A rare-earth metals mine? Particularly juicy sex-workers? Drop some 'mechs, defeat the defenders, and either capture the world for yourself, or load the 'mechs/lanthanides/bitches into the dropships and bring the haul back to your own territory. No need to make up any excuses, unless you're going for a huge Succession War-style offensive.

Sure, but my statement was that even during the 1st SW when nuking everything was on the table, you physically couldn't evacuate something the sheer size of the Hesperus industrial facilities. How many Overlords would it take to load up all that machinery, all those skilled workers, etc.? Do you have the spare Overlords given that its total war? Even the USSR was only able to pull off the evacuations since they had already been industrializing the far side of the Urals for the iron inside those mountains and as a result had existing infrastructure to piggyback off of.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

So, here's a thing that's been going down:

The truth about “Faith McClosky”

I write true crime, I never thought I’d be writing about myself playing the role of a real-life victim. For those of you that don’t know me, I write in a lot of different genres. One science …

blainepardoe.wordpress.com

Over the last couple years, military historian, BattleTech author, and surprisingly based guy Blaine Lee Pardoe has been on the receiving end of a one-man cancel crusade, which reached "credible threats of violence" level earlier this year with the announcement of his newest book, Blue Dawn, a 2nd American Civil War thriller set in future Current Year. Long story short, Pardoe has survived attempts to get him fired from both CGL and his publisher, has received a restraining order against the person in question, now keeps a loaded gun in his house, and refuses to bow to crazy slanderous leftists.

What the fuck. I hadn't heard about this at all. You'd think this would've cropped up on Sarna.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Sure, but my statement was that even during the 1st SW when nuking everything was on the table, you physically couldn't evacuate something the sheer size of the Hesperus industrial facilities. How many Overlords would it take to load up all that machinery, all those skilled workers, etc.? Do you have the spare Overlords given that its total war? Even the USSR was only able to pull off the evacuations since they had already been industrializing the far side of the Urals for the iron inside those mountains and as a result had existing infrastructure to piggyback off of.

I was exaggerating for comedy, but sure.

My big problem is how, through centuries of relatively static borders, there are so many vitally important factories near constantly-active warzones. Like, the Great Houses have existed in some way or another since at least the 2300s. They've been in conflict or preparing for conflict with their neighbors for about that long. Even during the Golden Age that was the Star League, they kept building up their reserves. And yet seemingly no one thought of funding or relocating industries to worlds that wouldn't so easy to invade, capture or harass. Hell, the Lyran Commonwealth moved its capital from Arcturus to Tharkad, yet in 700+ years no one could convince Defiance to build their manufacture plants beyond the range of raids out of the Combine or the League.

What the fuck. I hadn't heard about this at all. You'd think this would've cropped up on Sarna.

I don't think Sarna would want to touch that sort of material. News like that are just begging for toxic replies from all sides.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

I was exaggerating for comedy, but sure.

My big problem is how, through centuries of relatively static borders, there are so many vitally important factories near constantly-active warzones. Like, the Great Houses have existed in some way or another since at least the 2300s. They've been in conflict or preparing for conflict with their neighbors for about that long. Even during the Golden Age that was the Star League, they kept building up their reserves. And yet seemingly no one thought of funding or relocating industries to worlds that wouldn't so easy to invade, capture or harass. Hell, the Lyran Commonwealth moved its capital from Arcturus to Tharkad, yet in 700+ years no one could convince Defiance to build their manufacture plants beyond the range of raids out of the Combine or the League.

I think I have an idea, though it's pretty cold blooded.

The Defiance execs know that, in the wake of the First Succession War, no one's going to gut the golden goose. So it doesn't matter who owns the planet -- they'll still need Defiance Hesperus to produce their Mechs.