Battletech OOC/Registration (Still open)

[Ularn]

I actually thought about twin MML-9s when you suggested the Artemis IV system. It's a possibility anyway, along with bringing in the Arrow IV on occasion or maybe even permanently depending on how much shooting Jaz does in a battle. The Streak LRM-20 system is maybe a long term goal; I'm sure at some point SaintB's going to put us up against some clan 'mechs so it might happen one day. Swapping the small laser for some kind of SRM system might be worth looking into as well, or maybe I'll just lose it entirely and take some more ammo.

I'll see about tinkering with the design once they've had a few more battles, got some varied experience and I've seen what would best suit Jaz's combat style. By then GSS will hopefully have accrued enough salvage to make the upgrades possible as well.

Hopefully.

Bear in mind I'm not one for "Boating" under most circumstances, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt. I happen to like the idea of an MML because it reduces the need to take up additional rack space for long and short range indirect fire. Call me old-fashioned but I like having a weapon to fall back on when one suddenly realizes "oh shit, they got within my arc of fire and I my big-hitter weapon is nullified".

True. Thing is, if your hold-out for such an eventuality consists entirely of one small laser then you may as well not even bother with it. Given that, going for MMLs and scrapping the laser might be a good call. Like I said though, I'll wait and see how often Jaz actually finds herself facing enemies at close range before making a decision. If she's good at keeping them at arms' length then LRMs might be all she needs.

EDIT: By the way, I know all these technical problems we're writing in are just to explain player absences, but for an IC explanation I was thinking we could say Chris' actions in setting up his ad-hoc cinema in the hangars caused some interference with a few of the sim cockpits. That is, unless SaintB has another explanation prepared that he'd rather use?

[Northern Dominus]

Hopefully.

Bear in mind I'm not one for "Boating" under most circumstances, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt. I happen to like the idea of an MML because it reduces the need to take up additional rack space for long and short range indirect fire. Call me old-fashioned but I like having a weapon to fall back on when one suddenly realizes "oh shit, they got within my arc of fire and I my big-hitter weapon is nullified".

True. Thing is, if your hold-out for such an eventuality consists entirely of one small laser then you may as well not even bother with it. Given that, going for MMLs and scrapping the laser might be a good call. Like I said though, I'll wait and see how often Jaz actually finds herself facing enemies at close range before making a decision. If she's good at keeping them at arms' length then LRMs might be all she needs.

EDIT: By the way, I know all these technical problems we're writing in are just to explain player absences, but for an IC explanation I was thinking we could say Chris' actions in setting up his ad-hoc cinema in the hangars caused some interference with a few of the sim cockpits. That is, unless SaintB has another explanation prepared that he'd rather use?

That sounds like a feasible explanation for the gap in action of certain characters. Either that or Billy leaned on the wrong button

As far as Jazz' loadout is concerned, that's probably the best call. She's your character anyway, hell she might say screw it and resort to boating two MRM-40 launchers and stuffing as much ammo as possible into her mech
Although that being said, two LRM-20 launchers weigh 20 tons and take up 10 critical spaces. Twin MML-9s would take up as many critical slots but only weigh 12 tons in comparison. So right there you suddenly have 8 tons to "play" with and a lot more indirect fire capability. Sure the sky-blackening wave of LRMs is gone, but in return Jazz can now have a better firing envelope to hammer enemies with missiles before peforming a Highlander Burial.

Oh the amazonian delight she would have...

[Ularn]

Would there be space to mount twin MML-9s and an Artemus IV?

[Northern Dominus]

Would there be space to mount twin MML-9s and an Artemus IV?

Offhand? No. You wouldn't have any extra critical spaces.

Remember, critical spaces are as important as tonnage, and MML-9s would suck up all 10 critical spaces.

Also, each launcher requires its own Artemis IV FCS, unlike a Targeting Computer which has one unit that takes up critical spaces for every 4 tons worth of controllable direct-fire weapon.

There's a handy-dandy list of mech weapons and equipment available from the wiki again:
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Weapons_and_Equipment_Lists

So that being said, if Jazz wouldn't mind a reduction in firepower for a bit of extra accuracy, she could use MML-7s instead of 9s.

[Ularn]

Would there be space to mount twin MML-9s and an Artemus IV?

Offhand? No. You wouldn't have any extra critical spaces.

Remember, critical spaces are as important as tonnage, and MML-9s would suck up all 10 critical spaces.

Also, each launcher requires its own Artemis IV FCS, unlike a Targeting Computer which has one unit that takes up critical spaces for every 4 tons worth of controllable direct-fire weapon.

There's a handy-dandy list of mech weapons and equipment available from the wiki again:
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Weapons_and_Equipment_Lists

So that being said, if Jazz wouldn't mind a reduction in firepower for a bit of extra accuracy, she could use MML-7s instead of 9s.

Only just realised that. Although thinking about it, even with a pair of MML-7s and an Artemis IV on each, the most hits Jaz could hope for from a volley would be fourteen, and while I'm not familiar with how the Artemis affects the dice, I imagine that would still require some very lucky rolling. By comparison, if she fires forty LRMs in a volley then I'm probably going to average twenty-four hits with each salvo according to the chart SaintB linked to earlier. Out of the 1,296 possible results from rolling 4D6, I'd estimate there are barely more than a dozen ways that could result in 14 or fewer hits from twinned LRM-20s. The chances of scoring fewer hits are probably worse than 1/100.

With those sorts of figures, I think I'll go for quantity over quality and just hope the bad guys stay the hell away!

[Northern Dominus]

Offhand? No. You wouldn't have any extra critical spaces.

Remember, critical spaces are as important as tonnage, and MML-9s would suck up all 10 critical spaces.

Also, each launcher requires its own Artemis IV FCS, unlike a Targeting Computer which has one unit that takes up critical spaces for every 4 tons worth of controllable direct-fire weapon.

There's a handy-dandy list of mech weapons and equipment available from the wiki again:
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Weapons_and_Equipment_Lists

So that being said, if Jazz wouldn't mind a reduction in firepower for a bit of extra accuracy, she could use MML-7s instead of 9s.

Only just realised that. Although thinking about it, even with a pair of MML-7s and an Artemis IV on each, the most hits Jaz could hope for from a volley would be fourteen, and while I'm not familiar with how the Artemis affects the dice, I imagine that would still require some very lucky rolling. By comparison, if she fires forty LRMs in a volley then I'm probably going to average twenty-four hits with each salvo according to the chart SaintB linked to earlier. Out of the 1,296 possible results from rolling 4D6, I'd estimate there are barely more than a dozen ways that could result in 14 or fewer hits from twinned LRM-20s. The chances of scoring fewer hits are probably worse than 1/100.

With those sorts of figures, I think I'll go for quantity over quality and just hope the bad guys stay the hell away!

Well if you want lots of missiles flying in a general direction, nothing beats MRMs. For the same tonnage of an LRM-20, an MRM-30 launches 30 missiles. In fact the MRM-30 was designed to be easily swapped for an LRM-20 so in exchange for getting closer Jazz could have a volley of 60 missiles available...

However they are "dead fire" weapons, meaning no lock, so no guarantee of any more hitting than you would with LRM-20s. One way to solve that would be to bump up to a pair of MRM-40s and have an 80 missile salvo instead of a 40 or 60 strong one, but at 12 tons and 7 critical slots each that means heat sinks and ammo is going bye-bye.

Frankly, given the future combined-arms tactics that GSS will probably be undertaking, I'd think that an upgrade in accuracy and tactical flexibility at the cost of brute force would be a viable option. Plus, who said both weapons had to be the same? What if Jazz utilized an MML-9 with an Artemis IV FCS and an MRM-20 on the other? Plenty of salvo options there.

[Ularn]

We can see.

On an unrelated note, I was just re-reading the Dervish and Centurion kills. You know that bit at the end of Saving Prive Ryan when Tom Hanks is shooting the tank with his pistol just for the sake of going down fighting. The tank explodes and he's like "What the hell?" before an allied plane flies overhead and you realise it just bombed the tank.

I like to imagine that's what the Centurion looked like from James' perspective. Also, Jaz and Artemis pretty definitely count as Big Damn Heroes

[Strykla]

Someone TG me tomorrow to remind me to post in the IC.

[Northern Dominus]

We can see.

On an unrelated note, I was just re-reading the Dervish and Centurion kills. You know that bit at the end of Saving Prive Ryan when Tom Hanks is shooting the tank with his pistol just for the sake of going down fighting. The tank explodes and he's like "What the hell?" before an allied plane flies overhead and you realise it just bombed the tank.

I like to imagine that's what the Centurion looked like from James' perspective. Also, Jaz and Artemis pretty definitely count as Big Damn Heroes

Perhaps, although if James hadn't botched his LRM shot earlier that Dervish probably would have gone down a lot quicker than it did .
Plus, I dunno if you've been reading up on the scale of the coming threat but against the Blakists there's not gonna be a whole lot of room for big damn heroes, well living ones anyway

And I had a thought: in case you're worried about the drop-off in raw firepower of Jazz switching to different missile launchers, there's always alternate ammunition. Instead of having every warhead just explode upon impact, different warheads could do different things in a salvo.
For example, one or the other launcher could use any of the following alternate ammunition types
Acid (sluff off enemy armor)
Fragmentation (self explanatory, highly effective against infantry)
Inferno (Burn em up)
Swarm (Lotsa little submunitions flying in every direction)
Tandem Charge (better explosive penetration)
Thunder (anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mine dispensing)

Plus, if the Bulldyke's eventual upgrades include a NARC beacon pod, then the possibilities for more destructive potential shoots up even higher.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Missile_Munitions

Granted, some of those only apply to LRMs or SRMS, but since MMLs use both the possibilities suddenly become a lot more interesting indeed don't they?

[Ularn]

Going to stop talking about missiles for the Catapult for now, though undoubtedly we'll dredge the topic up when the time for upgrades comes and again when Chris gets to try mounting missiles to his Corsair.

Unfortunately I can't seem to find much on the Jihad - the wiki page on it seems incredibly sparse while the battles it links to are a bit more in depth than I was looking for for the time being and still don't really explain the politics behind the war.

EDIT: Hang on; the opening shots were fired on Outreach? *gasps* THAT'S WHERE WE ARE!!!1!

(No joke; I genuinely only just realised the connection)

[SaintB]

All true enough, but all of that suddenly goes out the window a decent striker type mech gets past...

I thought there was an Arrow IV variant of the Catapult already in place? And maybe that should be a future potential upgrade to the Bulldyke Either that or swapping down to LRM-10s and tacking on Artemis IV FCS'. More ammo and more accuracy after all.

The CPLT-C3 mounts a pair of Arrow IVs instead of LRM-15s. Unfortunately it can only carry one ton of ammo, equal to five reloads, so it's pretty much essential that you tie it to an external ammo supply of some kind. That's the main reason I went for the C4 instead; more mobile and independent.

However, since the C4's basically a C1 that trades its lasers for ammo, I imagine you could take the same approach with a C3 to give yourself more reloads. If GSS ever gets its hands on a pair of Arrow IVs then Jaz might try calling dibs on them whenever the mission involves defending an objective. That way she can sit on an ammo dump and missilespam to her heart's content. However, it probably wouldn't be a suitable loadout for a mission like this where she has to keep pretty mobile, so here she'd probably stick with the LRM-20s. I'm assuming that swapping out the weapons between deployments like that would be relatively easy?

And I think I'd possibly go for a pair of Streak LRM-20s over the Artemis IV given the choice.

There are two types of 'mech- Battlemech's and Omnimechs. Battlemechs are usually purpose built for particular roles and they can be modified but it takes days or sometimes weeks to finish a refit; changing weaponry also requires tweaking the gyro and sometimes replacing and moving myomar bundles and junk and stuff. The advantage is that Battlemechs are cheap and easy to maintain, and mass produce(compared to Omnimechs) and a full overhaul can be done on a Battlemech including changing armor types and weight, cockpits, engines, etc. But its costs a lot and takes forever.
Omnimechs are designed to allow weapons to be removed and refitted but they cost a fuckton (2-3times as much as a regular 'mech) and they canonically sacrifice the ability to change armor, engine, cockpit, etc. The advantage is it takes only a few hours to pull all the weaponry out of an Omni and replace it with something different as long as it fits the size and weight requirements.

Bulldyke is a Battlemech, so in theory while you can make whatever changes you want (within the weight and space limits) it would take time and the cost money - so just FYI if it would take too long or cost too much you won't get a green light from Bear.

[Ularn]

The CPLT-C3 mounts a pair of Arrow IVs instead of LRM-15s. Unfortunately it can only carry one ton of ammo, equal to five reloads, so it's pretty much essential that you tie it to an external ammo supply of some kind. That's the main reason I went for the C4 instead; more mobile and independent.

However, since the C4's basically a C1 that trades its lasers for ammo, I imagine you could take the same approach with a C3 to give yourself more reloads. If GSS ever gets its hands on a pair of Arrow IVs then Jaz might try calling dibs on them whenever the mission involves defending an objective. That way she can sit on an ammo dump and missilespam to her heart's content. However, it probably wouldn't be a suitable loadout for a mission like this where she has to keep pretty mobile, so here she'd probably stick with the LRM-20s. I'm assuming that swapping out the weapons between deployments like that would be relatively easy?

And I think I'd possibly go for a pair of Streak LRM-20s over the Artemis IV given the choice.

There are two types of 'mech- Battlemech's and Omnimechs. Battlemechs are usually purpose built for particular roles and they can be modified but it takes days or sometimes weeks to finish a refit; changing weaponry also requires tweaking the gyro and sometimes replacing and moving myomar bundles and junk and stuff. The advantage is that Battlemechs are cheap and easy to maintain, and mass produce(compared to Omnimechs) and a full overhaul can be done on a Battlemech including changing armor types and weight, cockpits, engines, etc. But its costs a lot and takes forever.
Omnimechs are designed to allow weapons to be removed and refitted but they cost a fuckton (2-3times as much as a regular 'mech) and they canonically sacrifice the ability to change armor, engine, cockpit, etc. The advantage is it takes only a few hours to pull all the weaponry out of an Omni and replace it with something different as long as it fits the size and weight requirements.

Bulldyke is a Battlemech, so in theory while you can make whatever changes you want (within the weight and space limits) it would take time and the cost money - so just FYI if it would take too long or cost too much you won't get a green light from Bear.

Okay, so that probably rules out customising the armament for specific engagements without lots of advanced warning.

[SaintB]

There are two types of 'mech- Battlemech's and Omnimechs. Battlemechs are usually purpose built for particular roles and they can be modified but it takes days or sometimes weeks to finish a refit; changing weaponry also requires tweaking the gyro and sometimes replacing and moving myomar bundles and junk and stuff. The advantage is that Battlemechs are cheap and easy to maintain, and mass produce(compared to Omnimechs) and a full overhaul can be done on a Battlemech including changing armor types and weight, cockpits, engines, etc. But its costs a lot and takes forever.
Omnimechs are designed to allow weapons to be removed and refitted but they cost a fuckton (2-3times as much as a regular 'mech) and they canonically sacrifice the ability to change armor, engine, cockpit, etc. The advantage is it takes only a few hours to pull all the weaponry out of an Omni and replace it with something different as long as it fits the size and weight requirements.

Bulldyke is a Battlemech, so in theory while you can make whatever changes you want (within the weight and space limits) it would take time and the cost money - so just FYI if it would take too long or cost too much you won't get a green light from Bear.

Okay, so that probably rules out customising the armament for specific engagements without lots of advanced warning.

Yeah, its the weakness of a Battlemech. You either try to build the best multirole you can or find a job and stick with it. Bear's Mech is basically kitted out to move between hot spots and serve as a command post for example.

[Northern Dominus]

Going to stop talking about missiles for the Catapult for now, though undoubtedly we'll dredge the topic up when the time for upgrades comes and again when Chris gets to try mounting missiles to his Corsair.

Unfortunately I can't seem to find much on the Jihad - the wiki page on it seems incredibly sparse while the battles it links to are a bit more in depth than I was looking for for the time being and still don't really explain the politics behind the war.

EDIT: Hang on; the opening shots were fired on Outreach? *gasps* THAT'S WHERE WE ARE!!!1!

(No joke; I genuinely only just realised the connection)

I've downloaded a couple of Jihad-era battletech sourcebooks from Amazon for reference, dear god they make the Clanners look like kittens by comparison. Of course around the same time the Clans have their own problems to deal with.

Outreach is a long-established independent planet, a haven for mercenary groups. It's sort of like a neutral hub where potential employers can find commands to employ after looking up their reputation courteys of the MRBC. The trouble is that a lot of the larger mercenary groups have allied themselves under the banner of the Allied Mercenary Command. Head by the Wolf's Dragoons (probably the biggest merc group, certainly the one with the most fanboys), they've acted in direct oppposition to the Word of Blake, and since mercenaries are usually the toughest grittiest fighters around the WOB strikes them first, obviously.

To really get a grasp of the Jihad era, if you can see if you can pick up a few of the sourcebooks (I'd reccomend Jihad Hotspots and Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents if possible).

And well since you're done with missles....which is the better long-range direct fire weapon, the ER PPC or the Gauss Rifle?
Actually now that I think about it, maybe the AC/2 should be added to that list as well...

The CPLT-C3 mounts a pair of Arrow IVs instead of LRM-15s. Unfortunately it can only carry one ton of ammo, equal to five reloads, so it's pretty much essential that you tie it to an external ammo supply of some kind. That's the main reason I went for the C4 instead; more mobile and independent.

However, since the C4's basically a C1 that trades its lasers for ammo, I imagine you could take the same approach with a C3 to give yourself more reloads. If GSS ever gets its hands on a pair of Arrow IVs then Jaz might try calling dibs on them whenever the mission involves defending an objective. That way she can sit on an ammo dump and missilespam to her heart's content. However, it probably wouldn't be a suitable loadout for a mission like this where she has to keep pretty mobile, so here she'd probably stick with the LRM-20s. I'm assuming that swapping out the weapons between deployments like that would be relatively easy?

And I think I'd possibly go for a pair of Streak LRM-20s over the Artemis IV given the choice.

There are two types of 'mech- Battlemech's and Omnimechs. Battlemechs are usually purpose built for particular roles and they can be modified but it takes days or sometimes weeks to finish a refit; changing weaponry also requires tweaking the gyro and sometimes replacing and moving myomar bundles and junk and stuff. The advantage is that Battlemechs are cheap and easy to maintain, and mass produce(compared to Omnimechs) and a full overhaul can be done on a Battlemech including changing armor types and weight, cockpits, engines, etc. But its costs a lot and takes forever.
Omnimechs are designed to allow weapons to be removed and refitted but they cost a fuckton (2-3times as much as a regular 'mech) and they canonically sacrifice the ability to change armor, engine, cockpit, etc. The advantage is it takes only a few hours to pull all the weaponry out of an Omni and replace it with something different as long as it fits the size and weight requirements.

Bulldyke is a Battlemech, so in theory while you can make whatever changes you want (within the weight and space limits) it would take time and the cost money - so just FYI if it would take too long or cost too much you won't get a green light from Bear.

There's always option C: Jazz gets into a scrap, fights like hell, and makes it out alive but with Bulldyke in shambles. Perhaps Bear could spot her a bit to get her mech back in fighting order with "what's laying around".

Granted it would have to be one helluva scrap, but it is an idea.

[Strykla]

Sorry for the short post guys. I should be doing better but I really can't think of anything else to say.

[Northern Dominus]

Sorry for the short post guys. I should be doing better but I really can't think of anything else to say.

He could take out a laser turret while moving. Y'know, throw in a little badassery, as well as keep an eye out for enemy mechs. OD spied simulated PBI potentially

[Strykla]

Sorry for the short post guys. I should be doing better but I really can't think of anything else to say.

He could take out a laser turret while moving. Y'know, throw in a little badassery, as well as keep an eye out for enemy mechs. OD spied simulated PBI potentially

I'm half-expecting SaintB to put a gauss round through my cockpit.

[Northern Dominus]

He could take out a laser turret while moving. Y'know, throw in a little badassery, as well as keep an eye out for enemy mechs. OD spied simulated PBI potentially

I'm half-expecting SaintB to put a gauss round through my cockpit.

Well if that's the case then you might as well go down swinging right?....why does that always look dirtier than it's supposed to be?

Oh, and we've also gotten into the habit of putting a horizontal line after our posts to denote our character's action. For example, if Artemus throttled up, torso twisted, then accidentally hit the self destruct-button it would look like this:

---

Actions- Throttle up to full speed, torso twist left, hit the wrong button and 'splode.

---

For further reference, see the end of my last post
viewtopic.php?p=12613271#p12613271

[Ularn]

He could take out a laser turret while moving. Y'know, throw in a little badassery, as well as keep an eye out for enemy mechs. OD spied simulated PBI potentially

I'm half-expecting SaintB to put a gauss round through my cockpit.

I'm wanting to post but I sort of need Dom or Hard or someone in that group to do something I can respond to. Maybe if Dom okays Jaz's request to keep command of the Support lance.

[Northern Dominus]

I'm half-expecting SaintB to put a gauss round through my cockpit.

I'm wanting to post but I sort of need Dom or Hard or someone in that group to do something I can respond to. Maybe if Dom okays Jaz's request to keep command of the Support lance.

I'm waiting for HP to post and the scout lance to pick something up...as well as formulating a re-shuffling of lances to give the Support lance added firepower...

[Ularn]

I'm wanting to post but I sort of need Dom or Hard or someone in that group to do something I can respond to. Maybe if Dom okays Jaz's request to keep command of the Support lance.

I'm waiting for HP to post and the scout lance to pick something up...as well as formulating a re-shuffling of lances to give the Support lance added firepower...

Well if you at least get Artemis to tell her that she has the support lance and he's looking to add to it then I can have Jaz shout at James a bit more

[Northern Dominus]

I'm waiting for HP to post and the scout lance to pick something up...as well as formulating a re-shuffling of lances to give the Support lance added firepower...

Well if you at least get Artemis to tell her that she has the support lance and he's looking to add to it then I can have Jaz shout at James a bit more

Eh, waiting on that actually. Let's see what the scout lance turns up, get in formation and move before making any adjustments (which probably will be anyyway, but you get the idea).

[Ularn]

I just realised my last post might need another edit. At the time I thought GSS was a wholly new organisation and our characters were founding members but I just re-read the OP and realised it's actually been established for a while and it's only Bear's Brigade that's newly founded. Just means I might have to revise Jaz's long-term goal of sitting on the company's executive board once it gets big enough to have one, though she'll probably still be looking to get Wilds' job some day.

[Northern Dominus]

I just realised my last post might need another edit. At the time I thought GSS was a wholly new organisation and our characters were founding members but I just re-read the OP and realised it's actually been established for a while and it's only Bear's Brigade that's newly founded. Just means I might have to revise Jaz's long-term goal of sitting on the company's executive board once it gets big enough to have one, though she'll probably still be looking to get Wilds' job some day.

Maybe, but first she and Bear's Brigade have to survive the Jihad

In other news, Stryk and I sorta engaged in a Battletech "what if" historical scenario via TG and I thought it would be fun to bring it to the masses here.
To wit, the genesis of the whole thing was started by the idea that maybe the Persians ruling the greeks for a bit (IE the battle of Thermopylae going horribly wrong for the Spartans), wouldn't have been a bad thing. So with that in mind, I had to wonder how this sort of thinking could be applied to the Battetech unvierse.

Which lead me to this: The breaking up of the Federated Commonwealth into Suns and Lyran halves again, despite being a bloody deavistating affair, in the long run is a good thing for the Inner Sphere.

Before I put my answer out there, what does everyone else think about the FedCom dissolution? Good in the long run, bad, indifferent? What say you?

[Strykla]

Ah yes, the whole "might makes right" mindset. Against a more traditional foe, say the Draconis Combine, that could potentially work with enough initiative and speed...sort of starting with not announcing your intentions at the reception of your wedding.
The thing is the Federated Commonwealth didn't invade the Draconis Combine, they instead invaded the Capellan Confederation. Not the biggest successor state on the block but very well versed in the art of guerrilla warfare. As you know, such combat isn't designed to win battles. Instead it's designed to bog advances down and soak up inordinate amounts of resources. Were it not for internal strife and a lack of prior planning the Capellans could very well have bogged the FedCom advance down long enough to convince the Free Worlds League to get in on the action. That coupled with the Draconis Combine attacking areas where units had been pulled could have spelled a very bad ending for the 4th Succession War.
The other problem is who exactly will be conqured. Sure the Lyrans managed to retake several of their former worlds and liberate a lot of Free Rasalhague ones as well, but beyond former worlds that might not like their former conquerers you run into the problem of capturing worlds that suddenly become havens for very hostile splinter groups indeed, making them yummy objective worlds in the future.
And that's just the worst case scenario for the new Federated Commonwealth if the 4th Succession War hadn't gone the way it did. Imagine what Katherine Steiner-Davion would have done if her plans to consolidate power had gone her way. Now things are worse, because not only would she heartily engage in war against the Capellans and the Free World League, again, but given her machinations its very likely the Clans would have taken the initiative to start invading again, which in turn would have spurred early action of the Word of Blake most likely.

I am a firm Hobbesian; it is my belief that a strong government is critical to a secure state. A good example is "giving your right to kill your neighbor up to a king, because why would the king kill his own subjects if they were not rebelling?" But the we get to the subject of tyrants. I am very glad that Katherine Steriner-Davion did not succeed in her agenda, because the Federated Commonwealth would not have survived, as smaller states or one empire.