Painting Lore: Miniatures Inspired by the Story

Airborne all the way! In 2762 House Davion launched a limited offensive against the Cappelan Confederation targeting three worlds; Tsanna among them.  It was on Tsanna that a young member of the Davion royal family saw action - but it was not at the helm of a mighty battlemech, or in the cockpit of an aerospace fighter gallantly engaged in a duel in the sky.  No, in this case Duchess Alexandra Davion was going to fight for her nation as the most vulnerable combatant in modern warfare - in the Infantry. As was the case for all the house sourcebooks, the very best nuggets of lore are found in the call-out boxes which detail an ‘excerpt’ from some memoir, interview, or radio cuts.  In this case it was a whole page detailing the Duchess’ participation in the initial assault landings on Tsanna against House Liao troops.  Riding into combat aboard a Vampire Dropship her jump platoon is inserted in a combat drop.   Vampire Dropships The Vampire dropship is a u...

Stinger LAM running amok Gather around boys and girls as I tell you a tale of wanton waste of soon to be sparse war material.  It is a bit inconceivable today, in the depths of the 3rd Succession war that the Draconis Combine at one point wasted nearly 3 regiments of Battlemechs on suicidal raids on there enemies boarder worlds.  But that is exactly what happened in 2824 in the lull between the 1st and 2nd succession wars . Justice in the Combine is a harsh business The Kurita’s use of undesirables in its ‘ Chain Gang’ missions was mostly a waste of resources; achieving little except drawing the ire of its neighbors and ridding the Combine of 300 unproductive citizens and Mechs mostly not worth repairing. On Maetsu Chain Gang 23 achieved some little success through its use of Land Air Mechs mobility; though the exact outcome is not discussed in detail. Why LAM’s were chosen, and how they found individuals with enough talent to learn to both fly an aerospace fighter and wo...

If there is one thing you may have noticed about this blog is I have a soft spot for the Draconis Combine .  Despite playing the big baddie in most of the early lore of the Battletech universe I have always liked the extreme juxtaposition of the neo-samurai ways and a dystopian science fiction universe.  Both of these things are brought neatly together in the Chain Gang missions executed by the Kuritan’s against the Steiner and Davion border worlds leading into the 2nd Succession War in 2824. These missions were a way for the lore writers to work in the Imperial Japanese suicide missions of the kamikaze into the fiction and adding a touch of heartless betrayal  The Chain Gang missions were manned by convicts, disgraced soldiers and ‘unproductives’ - the combine term for homeless, jobless, or low level criminals.  The ‘Chain Gangs’ would form up in lance size elements and be dropped off on some border world with the instructions to cause as much chaos as possible… t...

Kentares Monument The Kentares IV massacre carries a lot of weight in the lore of the Draconis Combine and Federated Suns in the succession wars era.  This war crime of incredible scale set the early tone for the Draconis Combine; giving it a feel of the unquestioning obedience, but at the same time dichotomy of samurai honor code, that is so prevalent in the pre-clan era.   The whole scenario played out in the 1st Succession war after the Draconis Combine had been fairly well succeeding at defeating its enemies.  Fate would turn the tide, however, when the Coordinator, out on what one assumes would be a routine battlefield leadership circulation to his commanders, stopped in a mountain glen to observe the beauty of the world he was in the midst of conquering.  As he strolled in the mountain meadow he was observed by a 7th Crucis Lancers infantry platoon. Taking the shot and changing history The platoon leader, Latha Pischel , ordered his platoon to withdraw...

The Original Campaign Box Set I Have always been a campaign player at heart.  As much as I love the skirmish lance vs lance games the lack of consequence to a larger narrative always made them seem less engaging.  Why withdraw your three Stingers to preserve a recon element when at the end of the game it was all forgotten?  Better to fight to the bitter end and pull out a scrappy win. Its only with campaign play, sometimes over months or years if you really want to get complex, does the small engagements really add up.  And so do the support units.  Much like my recent post regarding logistics, command elements are also important.  While the stories often tell of regimental commanders fighting from a mech and commanding all their forces, this is problematic for anyone with real world military experience.  Its hard enough to judge where your squad or platoon is under fire, let alone a hundred giant war machines across several kilometers.  No, for r...

The foundation of the early Battletech novels, the Gray Death Legion (abbreviated to the GDL) is perhaps one of the most famous of the mercenary units in the Inner Sphere, despite being rather small in comparison to other major commands like the Eridani Light Horse or Wolf's Dragoons .  Despite their small size the unit has routinely hit above its weight and generally comes very near total annihilation in the process.  It has remained a fan favorite, and somehow always works its way into the most critical of world events. Another interesting feature of the GDL is its incorporation of infantry forces in a time of the BT universe before elementals and powered armor infantry made ground pounders and Poor Bloody Infantry (PBIs) popular.  Perhaps owing as much to the need for dramatic prose in the fiction works they were featured in as to infantry’s actual game utility; the use of anti-mech and inferno armed infantry was always a feature of the GDL stories.  This was in...