Every time I hear these, I marvel at the detail. Forget the lore of Middle Earth or World of Warcraft. This is a thousand years of detailed military, political and economic history that NEVER HAPPENED. It reads like an actual social studies class! Bravo!
It is fairly obvious you have never read all of the Lore of Middle Earth.... Here is a hint, there is a LOT of it. Tolkien detailed the entire history of Middle Earth from its creation, right the way through until after the War of the Ring, and most of that was not published until well after his death as it was more or less locked up in his private papers.
@@alganhar1 I mean, in fairness, there is more raw *stuff* for Battletech than there is LOTR. But Tolkien was one man. Battletech has had multiple authors working on the IP for going on 40 years. And a lot of the stuff in Battletech doesn't come close to the quality level of Tolkien's work. And a lot of stuff in Battletech is highly derivative. Tolkien pretty much forged the modern version of the fantasy genre on his own. So yeah - there's probably more raw stuff in Battletech, but that doesn't mean it's more impressive.
A young Alexander Kerensky gets on the HPG network for the first time, Space Googles his own name, and after a minute of reading the first entry, leans backs and says "well I gotta fix that." The rest is history.
Thank you for all the work you do presenting the Battletech universe for us. I hope you keep it up and know we truly appreciate it. I was born too late and missed the Battletech era of the 80s and 90s so this kind of content is perfect for me to really flesh out the universe.
No problem. It was an enjoyable project to work on at my end but the reception has been fantastic and inspires me to try ever grander projects. Hoping that the Star League Civil War will be the best ones yet.
This is the exact content to fill in the empty hollow feeling after getting exposed to the majestic Battletech lore after playing Battletech. The games left me feeling that there is a much larger world behind what the game presents and this series and you have been delivering the lore beyond.
The setting is absolutely massive. And I'm glad we're getting the new Battletech Universe book with and after the Mercenaries kickstarter. It'll finally give an overdue overview of the entire setting from start to finish; something crucial for anyone hoping to get into this lore and doesn't want to buy or wade through 50+ disparate sourcebooks.
My dad got me to play mechwarrior with him when I was a child, came back to it now not realizing battletech and mechwarrior were the same thing, playing 2018s battletech while binging this playlist ! Love it and appreciate your work. Very lore dense but as a starwars fan and a fan of Geetslys History of the republic this is RIGHT up my alley and the best way for me to learn the ins and outs of the lore!
Very pleased to hear you're finding the videos interesting. Still a lot to get through if you're planning on watching the whole playlist. Hope you enjoy.
I'm curious how dense the Amaris Civil War will be content-wise. I'm completely enthralled by the sheer precision and quality of your videos, keep it up.
The Star League, as seen by the factions of 3025: "Ah, that was the Golden Age, when all of humanity was unified and everyone had peace and prosperity." The actual Star League: "Yeah, we had like 70 years of actual peace, as a brief interlude between the centuries of war on either side." I genuinely appreciate this aspect of Battletech lore. One of the big things I've learned in studying history is that any claims of a "golden age" are bullshit. I like that as you dig deeper into the background of this setting, you see that they tell the same lies to themselves that we see told about our past.
My feelings on the Star League have flip-flopped as I dove more into the lore. Initially I too shared the delusion that it was a peaceful Golden Age, but researching the Reunification War I realised just how imperialistic and all-round awful it was. The dysfunction of the so-called "Golden Age" and subsequent downfall cemented that idea. But now that I've finished reading about the First Succession War in detail, I feel like "no wonder they all wanted to go back." Despite its many problems, it really was a utopia compared to what followed.
This is the genius of the satire that is the battletech universe; it so closely resembles humans history, because it expands on human history, and the dangerous tendencies toward imperialism, but with lasers. And I gotta say, I agree with Sven on the flip-flopping. The star league sounds like an idealistic paradise until you realize their "peaceful utopia" and "golden age" were not only won off the back of a broken promise of peace and a hundred million deaths, but that it ultimately became corrupted by infighting and betrayal. Because it was not a peaceful union, it was simply a leash for the Inner Sphere powers. In the vacuum that followed the star league, humanity was brought to its darkest place; utter depravity of power for no reason other than to stick it to everyone else who might take what you've claimed. A whole galaxy of nations glassing entire worlds because they were finally let off the leash and they could. With enough real estate, mutually assured destruction becomes a theory, and nukes and viruses become practical strategic assets. The Reunification war was just a little war exercise by comparison, and after that any period of war would sound like a better age. That, and they destroyed most of their economies and technological capabilities in the process, so they literally went backwards as a society in so many ways. The real bitch of it is that Ian Cameron's obsession with his dream of a unified humanity, by any means, ensured that once his vision died humanity was guaranteed to never be unified again, but would fight over the idea of the league as power, and only for the purpose of keeping anyone else from getting it first, until forever. Because that's ultimately what every major conflict since had really been about; bringing back the power of the star league, and unity and cooperation be damned.
This is the most comprehensive battletech lore channel i have found by far. Love the other guys too but my god am i glad that ive foumd this. Great stuff
I think from all of the videos I have watched of Yours, Sven, one thing stands out. NEVER kill an Inner Sphere womans lover or you have just made an enemy that has a grudge that will never disappear. Inner Sphere women are some of the greatest powerhouses lol.
I'm watching this and my god, the black background is SUCH an improvement! The last white background actually made me tired a bit, now i can actually sleep listening to the lore!
I would love to see a series of what-if stories for Battletech. Like, just as an example, what if the Taurian Concordat submitted to the Star League and joined as a partner nation w/o having to go to war during the Reunification wars?
I'm not sure that offer was even on the table. It was join as lower-class citizens or die. Likely the Member States would not have agreed to a proposal if Calderon made one.
@@SvenVanDerPlank I mean, does it need to be for a what if scenario? And I only mentioned that specific example because I thought of it during a part of the video where you were talking about the TC. xD
Actually during the Jihad the Blakists tried to turn HPG's into weapons. But according to the lore books they had to abandon their research as it wasn't practical. The Society though managed to use the HPG to insert so called SLOTH viruses into Warships making them jump or go haywire at the most inoportune moments
Oh absolutely! During the Jihad there were HPG cannons on ships (and in one case, a Mech) and that's also what the Republic's HPG Wall turned out to be Don't think we have stats for them yet, or if we ever will
8:04 A decision that would come back to bite them later... 23:22 It is ironic that these duelists was probably what later inspired Nicholas Kerensky...
Do you know if any major battles other than clan invasion battles have scenarios or historical battles to play? Some of these smaller wars would be a lot of fun
@@RyeFields You might try digging through old issues of the various BT magazines, almost all of which are free pdfs on Sarna. There were a lot of odd little scenarios of varying degrees of canonicity in them back in the day.
The Draconis Combine is such a dumpster fire, if com star wasn't around post star-league every one would have ganged up on them considering how pointlessly hostile they are towards every one.
It's sadly an article of faith and a pillar of their "bible" that the Coordinator/Combine have a destiny or mandate to rule all of humanity. It's even in the full title of their head of state, "Coordinator of Worlds". It's only a few steps beneath 40k's "Emperor of Mankind" on the arrogance scale. Even if the leadership didn't want to be so hostile, the sheer cultural and historical inertia within the Combine prevents any serious attempt to give that up permanently without setting off coup attempts or civil war.
@@MoreEvilThanYahweh the emperor of mankind literally powers the astronomicon while he fights the 4 chaos gods and watches over all of mankind while the coordinators have the same power as a governor of a sector
It's like you have never even read anything from the setting lol. Comstar did nothing to help the Combine and a LOT to see them attacked constantly. The Combine was just that strong militarily that no one could take them on and win for long. Hell at the start of the Succession Wars they bodied their neighbours HARD and only really lost momentum after Kentares, if they have nuked it instead they very well might have taken over the entire Federated Suns!
Yeah there's a bit of that. But their Banner is red and black with a dragon, so a bit Targaryen. And I'm sure Katherine Steiner was the inspiration for Cersei Lannister
I get my art from the Digital Deluxe artbook so they might be better quality than what's in the game. Plus I've tracked down few of the artists' personal pages and found higher quality versions there.
House Kurita is the reason the Inner Sphere can't have nice things. All the houses are varying shades of bad, but Kurita seems to take the worst. I feel fully justified in hating them. Stellar work as ever. The only thing I have against this videobis how you rotate the star map to note the mobilization of Kurita and Steiner troops. That threw me for a loop for a minute while I tried to figure out where they sharer a N/S border (I was only listening when the map spun). I'm very curious as to who your preferred faction is. I personally seem to be gravitating towards Fed Suns and Free World's League.
This is the one and only time I rotated the map but I doubt I'll do it again. I don't really have a favourite faction. Any of the great houses except Liao I guess. I like Fed Suns because MechCommander and Davion Guards were my introduction to the series and Sword & Dagger my first book. Lyran Commonwealth seems like the only decent place you'd want to live if you were a regular person. I like reading about the political makeup of the Free Worlds League but they're pretty absent from the 3025 setting and books. And my favourite characters come from the Draconis Combine. I like how the same set of rules and ideals can create both principled and monstrous individuals, that's interesting to me.
@@SvenVanDerPlank I would venture to posit that most sets of technologies and ideologies, be they military or civilian, political or religious, are tools and markers that tend to highlight a person's personal priorities; they thus tend to emphasize a person's personality traits, be they good or ill. Battletech highlights this both in the way in which 'Mechs are utilized by individual Mechwarriors and (as you have pointed out) in which both heroes, villains, and people in-between spring from all regions of the Inner Sphere and beyond. It's probably this reason why Battletech's characters and setting feel so damn HUMAN to me in spite of its sci-fi setting.
@@Korraganitar The problem with House Kurita is that they have the military might to exercise their brand of crazy across the Inner Sphere, while Liao is more restricted. As for Amaris... It's hard to get a read on the family as a whole, especially as Stephan's actions burned the whole line. It's be interesting to see how a line that began as Hegemony Loyalists turned so completely against the League, and the Camerons in particular.
Loving this series, wish I had found it sooner! One correction about currency - the common currency from Star League was the SL$ (Star League Dollar). The C-Bill came later from ComStar (originated from early ComStar's Letter of Credit).
Glad you're enjoying the series. C-bill is actually a term that predates the Star League in universe. When it was first used in the 1986 MechWarrior RPG sourcebook, it represented the ComStar currency as you say, but it existed alongside the "House bills" such as the M-bill or S-bill. Later sourcebooks have explained that the Cameron-bill (C-bill) was already a term in use during the Age of War, and that it's use continued after the introduction of the Star League dollar.
I'm also looking forward to the Fall of the Star League. Really hope I can pull off the things I've been imagining in my head these past 5 months. I've always been clear when people have asked me before, I'm not planning on covering clan history until they reappear. Plans may change but I'll probably finish the clan invasion series circa 3052 at Tukayyid (or soon after) and then jump back to 2785.
Kinda irritates me that Jocasta is looked upon as a good ruler... she was a sanctimonious prick who refused to do her duty for her realm and humanity as a whole until forced, and then screwed up the diplomatic aftermath. She is literally only an improvement on her brother, who was MENTALLY ILL.
Is there a source for the Star League map you use in the video that you're willing to share? The Star League era maps I've found don't go into nearly as much detail and I'd love to look at it more closely.
Is this beginning of the battletech timeline? I love your videos but they are confusing as to which is happening after what, if that makes sense. Like does tje reunification war happen after thr clan invasion or tje succession wars?
This isn't the beginning. If you go to my channel you can find a playlist of the entire series which has them in order. So far I've covered the years 2000-2821. The Succession Wars are 2784-3040, Clan Invasion is 3049-3061, so that's still quite far off for me.
It is not the last BT history. If you were following my channel for the C&C lore, sorry to say that I'm not looking at doing any more in the near future. I still have a few ideas but simply not had the desire to work on them. I didn't have the best time working on them (probs cause I was still new to that kind of video) and I was never super happy with the end result. Not saying I never will but I've no timeframe for it at the moment. Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear.
I will never understand why house Cameron even kept the great houses around I mean in the beginning of the SL sure but after the SLDF reached a certain peak of military prowess house Cameron should have disposed of all these great houses. The great houses are very obviously more trouble than they are worth and clearly have zero loyalty to the SL should have gotten rid of them as soon as it was possible and I do think the SLDF at it's peak could have defeated all the great houses especially if it was lead by a guy like Aleksandr Kerensky. But I guess that would make for a very different BattleTech world and story.
"Chapter II: Arms" of my latest series on the Fall of the Star League actually addresses that issue directly at one point. In short, the SLDF would have had an extremely hard time taking on the Member-States. If they tried to fight all at once they'd be annihilated, and if they tried to remove just one at a time, the others would immediately see what was going on and declare war, resulting in the same outcome. They only maintained their numbers advantage as long as the others played ball, and the only reason they did that was because it was better for them to be a part of the League. Furthermore, the SLDF can only be maintained at it's massive size if they continue to rake in the vast amounts of money that comes from a united Inner Sphere. Take that away and it crumbles, plus you've got a war that easily rivals the First Succession War.
All of that, and while it was called a League, it was a monarchy, an Empire. If the Great Houses all voted again for a new First Lord when the last one died, it might have stuck longer.
The SLDF was got most of its personel from outside of the Terran Hegemony - if they try to take a House out, many of those men will defect back to their old region While the SLDF in general and the Royal units in particular had the best technology, the Houses would generally try to keep the most promising personel for their own House armies - the SLDF got the dregs skill-wise The Gunsliner program helped close that gap but I dont't think it mattered much over large numbers - the SLDF couldn't send Gunslingers everywhere in a big fight. Externally there's trade-offs like this all over in BatrleTech - waeapon ranges, heat, damage, rate of fire Hi-tech stuff is expensive and rare Clanners have super-soldiers in super-mechs, but they have a poor economic base backing it up and lack Spheroid rat-cunning
It's just one of the central themes of the BT universe. Faster than light travel and communication is heavily restricted in BT, so the idea is that it was functionally impossible to operate a democracy at anything more than a planetary scale. So over the centuries, humanity regressed back into a feudal system, bringing with it those archaic terms and titles.
Sorry, I must have missed this one. I do try to upload my script as subtitles for each of my videos but frequently forget as it doesn't work until after the video is done processing. I'll try to remember when I get back from work this evening.
That should be the subtitles uploaded now. I just insert my scripts into auto-sync so not sure how effective that is. Let me know if you come across any problems and I can try to manually correct them.
You know? We give the Capellan Confederation a ration of shit for being shifty, backstabbity Space North Korea, but the Draconis Combine has been transparently, almost openly disloyal since before there *was* a Capellan Confederation.
so youtube is pulling the unsub BS again and they are going one step further. I could not find your channel trough my view history it was actively hiding your and other channels from search results, i finally found it again via searching for battletech and it only showed 1 video from your older ones and not the newer ones i watched..
This is the most comprehensive battletech lore channel i have found by far. Love the other guys too but my god am i glad that ive foumd this. Great stuff
Every time I hear these, I marvel at the detail. Forget the lore of Middle Earth or World of Warcraft. This is a thousand years of detailed military, political and economic history that NEVER HAPPENED. It reads like an actual social studies class! Bravo!
Thanks, and I agree with you, there are very few series that have such an extensive backstory as this one.
It is fairly obvious you have never read all of the Lore of Middle Earth....
Here is a hint, there is a LOT of it. Tolkien detailed the entire history of Middle Earth from its creation, right the way through until after the War of the Ring, and most of that was not published until well after his death as it was more or less locked up in his private papers.
Forget 40k... Battletech is Lorehammer
@@alganhar1 I mean, in fairness, there is more raw *stuff* for Battletech than there is LOTR.
But Tolkien was one man. Battletech has had multiple authors working on the IP for going on 40 years. And a lot of the stuff in Battletech doesn't come close to the quality level of Tolkien's work. And a lot of stuff in Battletech is highly derivative. Tolkien pretty much forged the modern version of the fantasy genre on his own.
So yeah - there's probably more raw stuff in Battletech, but that doesn't mean it's more impressive.
Well, hasn't happened yet anyway
This continued coverage of BT functional prehistory is a treasure beyond measure.
Where did he get the animated maps?
HE MADE THEM.
A young Alexander Kerensky gets on the HPG network for the first time, Space Googles his own name, and after a minute of reading the first entry, leans backs and says "well I gotta fix that." The rest is history.
Thank you for all the work you do presenting the Battletech universe for us. I hope you keep it up and know we truly appreciate it. I was born too late and missed the Battletech era of the 80s and 90s so this kind of content is perfect for me to really flesh out the universe.
No problem. It was an enjoyable project to work on at my end but the reception has been fantastic and inspires me to try ever grander projects. Hoping that the Star League Civil War will be the best ones yet.
This is the exact content to fill in the empty hollow feeling after getting exposed to the majestic Battletech lore after playing Battletech. The games left me feeling that there is a much larger world behind what the game presents and this series and you have been delivering the lore beyond.
The setting is absolutely massive. And I'm glad we're getting the new Battletech Universe book with and after the Mercenaries kickstarter. It'll finally give an overdue overview of the entire setting from start to finish; something crucial for anyone hoping to get into this lore and doesn't want to buy or wade through 50+ disparate sourcebooks.
That story was junk
Aaand, watching the whole thing again. This has quickly become my favourite channel on TH-cam.
My dad got me to play mechwarrior with him when I was a child, came back to it now not realizing battletech and mechwarrior were the same thing, playing 2018s battletech while binging this playlist ! Love it and appreciate your work.
Very lore dense but as a starwars fan and a fan of Geetslys History of the republic this is RIGHT up my alley and the best way for me to learn the ins and outs of the lore!
Very pleased to hear you're finding the videos interesting. Still a lot to get through if you're planning on watching the whole playlist. Hope you enjoy.
@@SvenVanDerPlank 4 hours in to the over 8 hour star league civil war video ;) love it! Keep up the amazing work my friend!
I'm curious how dense the Amaris Civil War will be content-wise. I'm completely enthralled by the sheer precision and quality of your videos, keep it up.
This was just an appetiser for the Civil War series. If I don't make any cuts, it has the potential to be 4x as long.
You need not wait. The first six chapters are already out. Hoping to get the seventh part out next weekend.
i love how an entire faction almost voted themselves out of existence because they didnt want to deal with two governments
I don't understand why more people haven't liked this video. It's fantastic!
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
The Star League, as seen by the factions of 3025: "Ah, that was the Golden Age, when all of humanity was unified and everyone had peace and prosperity."
The actual Star League: "Yeah, we had like 70 years of actual peace, as a brief interlude between the centuries of war on either side."
I genuinely appreciate this aspect of Battletech lore. One of the big things I've learned in studying history is that any claims of a "golden age" are bullshit. I like that as you dig deeper into the background of this setting, you see that they tell the same lies to themselves that we see told about our past.
My feelings on the Star League have flip-flopped as I dove more into the lore. Initially I too shared the delusion that it was a peaceful Golden Age, but researching the Reunification War I realised just how imperialistic and all-round awful it was. The dysfunction of the so-called "Golden Age" and subsequent downfall cemented that idea. But now that I've finished reading about the First Succession War in detail, I feel like "no wonder they all wanted to go back." Despite its many problems, it really was a utopia compared to what followed.
@@SvenVanDerPlank Or the Age of War prior to the League's formation.
This is the genius of the satire that is the battletech universe; it so closely resembles humans history, because it expands on human history, and the dangerous tendencies toward imperialism, but with lasers.
And I gotta say, I agree with Sven on the flip-flopping. The star league sounds like an idealistic paradise until you realize their "peaceful utopia" and "golden age" were not only won off the back of a broken promise of peace and a hundred million deaths, but that it ultimately became corrupted by infighting and betrayal. Because it was not a peaceful union, it was simply a leash for the Inner Sphere powers.
In the vacuum that followed the star league, humanity was brought to its darkest place; utter depravity of power for no reason other than to stick it to everyone else who might take what you've claimed. A whole galaxy of nations glassing entire worlds because they were finally let off the leash and they could. With enough real estate, mutually assured destruction becomes a theory, and nukes and viruses become practical strategic assets. The Reunification war was just a little war exercise by comparison, and after that any period of war would sound like a better age. That, and they destroyed most of their economies and technological capabilities in the process, so they literally went backwards as a society in so many ways.
The real bitch of it is that Ian Cameron's obsession with his dream of a unified humanity, by any means, ensured that once his vision died humanity was guaranteed to never be unified again, but would fight over the idea of the league as power, and only for the purpose of keeping anyone else from getting it first, until forever. Because that's ultimately what every major conflict since had really been about; bringing back the power of the star league, and unity and cooperation be damned.
@@ryanlott1108
This is the most comprehensive battletech lore channel i have found by far. Love the other guys too but my god am i glad that ive foumd this. Great stuff
I think from all of the videos I have watched of Yours, Sven, one thing stands out. NEVER kill an Inner Sphere womans lover or you have just made an enemy that has a grudge that will never disappear. Inner Sphere women are some of the greatest powerhouses lol.
The go to man for Battletech lore is back!
I love your stuff. You're by far my favourite battletech content creator
Thank you, that's very high praise considering we've got some tremendously talented people in the community.
@@SvenVanDerPlank same here, as a historian, this fact-rich documentary format is ideal for me. Keep it up!
Loving these,
thank you for making them
No problem, glad you've been enjoying them.
Awesome video as always, can't wait for the next part to come out.
These videos are filling in the history I most wanted to know, this is awesome
I'm watching this and my god, the black background is SUCH an improvement!
The last white background actually made me tired a bit, now i can actually sleep listening to the lore!
I would love to see a series of what-if stories for Battletech.
Like, just as an example, what if the Taurian Concordat submitted to the Star League and joined as a partner nation w/o having to go to war during the Reunification wars?
I'm not sure that offer was even on the table. It was join as lower-class citizens or die. Likely the Member States would not have agreed to a proposal if Calderon made one.
@@SvenVanDerPlank I mean, does it need to be for a what if scenario? And I only mentioned that specific example because I thought of it during a part of the video where you were talking about the TC. xD
We need a paradox-style grand strategy with those sort of story trees
57:45 man I shouldn't giggle this much at just a planet's name.
Heard the name and i knew there was going to have at least one comment about it!
I can't tell you how much it bugs me that I mispronounced Butte. Wasn't a word I'd come across before so I just assumed it was a joke name.
I know it's considered non canon in Battletech, but in Mechassault Phantom War, it's revealed that the Hyperpulse Generator can be weaponized.
Actually during the Jihad the Blakists tried to turn HPG's into weapons. But according to the lore books they had to abandon their research as it wasn't practical. The Society though managed to use the HPG to insert so called SLOTH viruses into Warships making them jump or go haywire at the most inoportune moments
Oh absolutely! During the Jihad there were HPG cannons on ships (and in one case, a Mech) and that's also what the Republic's HPG Wall turned out to be
Don't think we have stats for them yet, or if we ever will
8:04 A decision that would come back to bite them later...
23:22 It is ironic that these duelists was probably what later inspired Nicholas Kerensky...
YES OMG THANK YOU!!!! THESE VIDEOS ARE AMAZING!!!!!!
Solid work as always
Do you know if any major battles other than clan invasion battles have scenarios or historical battles to play? Some of these smaller wars would be a lot of fun
There are scenarios in the back of Era Report: 2750 for the Second and Third Hidden Wars but I doubt it's on par with the clan invasion.
@@SvenVanDerPlank shame, it would be interesting to play out some of these battles
@@RyeFields You might try digging through old issues of the various BT magazines, almost all of which are free pdfs on Sarna. There were a lot of odd little scenarios of varying degrees of canonicity in them back in the day.
Sven, Official Historian of Battletech!!!!!!
Binging this at work. Absolutely stellar work.
Thank you. Hopefully I made the work day pass a bit quicker for you.
@@SvenVanDerPlank You've made time fly way too fast. I'd be happy to listen to those forever.
Well you've probably seen already but there's another 10+ hours of this series on the channel.
The Draconis Combine is such a dumpster fire, if com star wasn't around post star-league every one would have ganged up on them considering how pointlessly hostile they are towards every one.
It's sadly an article of faith and a pillar of their "bible" that the Coordinator/Combine have a destiny or mandate to rule all of humanity. It's even in the full title of their head of state, "Coordinator of Worlds". It's only a few steps beneath 40k's "Emperor of Mankind" on the arrogance scale.
Even if the leadership didn't want to be so hostile, the sheer cultural and historical inertia within the Combine prevents any serious attempt to give that up permanently without setting off coup attempts or civil war.
@@MoreEvilThanYahweh yeah but the difference is the emperor is a demigod behind the arrogance, where the coordinators, are not.
@@MoreEvilThanYahweh the emperor of mankind literally powers the astronomicon while he fights the 4 chaos gods and watches over all of mankind while the coordinators have the same power as a governor of a sector
@@generaldelasmontanas2699 I'm talking about the arrogance the title itself has, not the person bearing it.
It's like you have never even read anything from the setting lol. Comstar did nothing to help the Combine and a LOT to see them attacked constantly. The Combine was just that strong militarily that no one could take them on and win for long. Hell at the start of the Succession Wars they bodied their neighbours HARD and only really lost momentum after Kentares, if they have nuked it instead they very well might have taken over the entire Federated Suns!
bless you for the content , really good work
Excellent work. Well done.
Thank you.
Oh, sweet. Thanks for the continued series.
Draconis Combine is the House Lannister of Battletech-always the instigators.
Yeah there's a bit of that. But their Banner is red and black with a dragon, so a bit Targaryen.
And I'm sure Katherine Steiner was the inspiration for Cersei Lannister
God I love the art, some of these are enhanced are they not? I've seen a few om HBS battletech, but it just seems, different in a way.
I get my art from the Digital Deluxe artbook so they might be better quality than what's in the game. Plus I've tracked down few of the artists' personal pages and found higher quality versions there.
House Kurita is the reason the Inner Sphere can't have nice things. All the houses are varying shades of bad, but Kurita seems to take the worst. I feel fully justified in hating them.
Stellar work as ever. The only thing I have against this videobis how you rotate the star map to note the mobilization of Kurita and Steiner troops. That threw me for a loop for a minute while I tried to figure out where they sharer a N/S border (I was only listening when the map spun).
I'm very curious as to who your preferred faction is. I personally seem to be gravitating towards Fed Suns and Free World's League.
This is the one and only time I rotated the map but I doubt I'll do it again.
I don't really have a favourite faction. Any of the great houses except Liao I guess. I like Fed Suns because MechCommander and Davion Guards were my introduction to the series and Sword & Dagger my first book. Lyran Commonwealth seems like the only decent place you'd want to live if you were a regular person. I like reading about the political makeup of the Free Worlds League but they're pretty absent from the 3025 setting and books. And my favourite characters come from the Draconis Combine. I like how the same set of rules and ideals can create both principled and monstrous individuals, that's interesting to me.
@@SvenVanDerPlank I would venture to posit that most sets of technologies and ideologies, be they military or civilian, political or religious, are tools and markers that tend to highlight a person's personal priorities; they thus tend to emphasize a person's personality traits, be they good or ill. Battletech highlights this both in the way in which 'Mechs are utilized by individual Mechwarriors and (as you have pointed out) in which both heroes, villains, and people in-between spring from all regions of the Inner Sphere and beyond. It's probably this reason why Battletech's characters and setting feel so damn HUMAN to me in spite of its sci-fi setting.
While I can understand not liking Kurita, I feel like Liao and Amaris are worse.
@@Korraganitar The problem with House Kurita is that they have the military might to exercise their brand of crazy across the Inner Sphere, while Liao is more restricted. As for Amaris... It's hard to get a read on the family as a whole, especially as Stephan's actions burned the whole line. It's be interesting to see how a line that began as Hegemony Loyalists turned so completely against the League, and the Camerons in particular.
The Bulls still live! We have been bloodied but we ARE STILL HERE! Taurian Concordat FTW!
Been waiting for this for some time now. Great Work.
Thank you. Sorry it took so long. Hopefully the next series comes out a bit quicker.
Thank you just in time for bed😎
This is interesting. Two points. Dracconis Coordinates have a lot of 'accidents'.
The numbers for those killed in the various atrocities seem lowish.
I didn't know the anti-bionics sentiment of the FWL came from one of their captain-generals acting terribly during his reign.
100% you are the best BT lore channel. There are others that are also good, but they should be looking at you. The periphery is a dangerous place!
Well thank you, that's very high praise indeed.
And yes it is, stay out of it.
Loving this series, wish I had found it sooner! One correction about currency - the common currency from Star League was the SL$ (Star League Dollar). The C-Bill came later from ComStar (originated from early ComStar's Letter of Credit).
Glad you're enjoying the series. C-bill is actually a term that predates the Star League in universe. When it was first used in the 1986 MechWarrior RPG sourcebook, it represented the ComStar currency as you say, but it existed alongside the "House bills" such as the M-bill or S-bill. Later sourcebooks have explained that the Cameron-bill (C-bill) was already a term in use during the Age of War, and that it's use continued after the introduction of the Star League dollar.
Yes awesome! I can’t wait till the Amaris Civil War thank you!
Going live in 24 hours.
Can’t wait for the Civil War and the Death of Star League.
I wonder how you’ll handle the split history of the Sphere and the Clans after that though.
I'm also looking forward to the Fall of the Star League. Really hope I can pull off the things I've been imagining in my head these past 5 months.
I've always been clear when people have asked me before, I'm not planning on covering clan history until they reappear. Plans may change but I'll probably finish the clan invasion series circa 3052 at Tukayyid (or soon after) and then jump back to 2785.
@@SvenVanDerPlank Alright. Can’t wait to listen to it.
well done
An amazing lore video as always!!
I'm surprised Battletech/Mechwarrior hasn't gotten a movie or TV Show since it's pretty much Game of Thrones in Space with Giant Robots
Budget and what story to pick - there's literally hundreds of ways in
Amazing
Kinda irritates me that Jocasta is looked upon as a good ruler... she was a sanctimonious prick who refused to do her duty for her realm and humanity as a whole until forced, and then screwed up the diplomatic aftermath. She is literally only an improvement on her brother, who was MENTALLY ILL.
love these videos. will you do some in the modern era, i.e. 3150s?
Yes but I don't plan to change my approach of going through the timeline chronologically. It will be literally years before I reach 3150. Sorry.
@@SvenVanDerPlank no need to be sorry, i love this stuff, no matter what era! keep it up!
Excellent ending,
You sir deserve way more subs and views!!
Is there a source for the Star League map you use in the video that you're willing to share? The Star League era maps I've found don't go into nearly as much detail and I'd love to look at it more closely.
I share my maps here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tquGOMT_K_XJvqi6GpV-DLOSmDNd4QNc?usp=drive_link
Great work!
What I love about BT lore is that, just like in real life, everyone is an prick and fk ups are universal. Its all too human and all too real
Is this beginning of the battletech timeline? I love your videos but they are confusing as to which is happening after what, if that makes sense. Like does tje reunification war happen after thr clan invasion or tje succession wars?
This isn't the beginning. If you go to my channel you can find a playlist of the entire series which has them in order. So far I've covered the years 2000-2821. The Succession Wars are 2784-3040, Clan Invasion is 3049-3061, so that's still quite far off for me.
i had no idea the fresh prince was so important in battletech
Secession wars and armais civil war
Working on it. It's the Star League Civil War first and the first part of that should be coming out within the next week.
Hey is this the last Battletech lore history? And are you going to go back to the Command & Conquer lore by any chance?
It is not the last BT history. If you were following my channel for the C&C lore, sorry to say that I'm not looking at doing any more in the near future. I still have a few ideas but simply not had the desire to work on them. I didn't have the best time working on them (probs cause I was still new to that kind of video) and I was never super happy with the end result. Not saying I never will but I've no timeframe for it at the moment. Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear.
@@SvenVanDerPlank That sucks then. Yuck!!!!
While Butte Hold is not pronounced how you said it, I am very pleased you did.
Please correct me, how is it said? Like "Beautiful?"
LOL the D is silent!
I will never understand why house Cameron even kept the great houses around I mean in the beginning of the SL sure but after the SLDF reached a certain peak of military prowess house Cameron should have disposed of all these great houses.
The great houses are very obviously more trouble than they are worth and clearly have zero loyalty to the SL should have gotten rid of them as soon as it was possible and I do think the SLDF at it's peak could have defeated all the great houses especially if it was lead by a guy like Aleksandr Kerensky.
But I guess that would make for a very different BattleTech world and story.
"Chapter II: Arms" of my latest series on the Fall of the Star League actually addresses that issue directly at one point. In short, the SLDF would have had an extremely hard time taking on the Member-States. If they tried to fight all at once they'd be annihilated, and if they tried to remove just one at a time, the others would immediately see what was going on and declare war, resulting in the same outcome. They only maintained their numbers advantage as long as the others played ball, and the only reason they did that was because it was better for them to be a part of the League. Furthermore, the SLDF can only be maintained at it's massive size if they continue to rake in the vast amounts of money that comes from a united Inner Sphere. Take that away and it crumbles, plus you've got a war that easily rivals the First Succession War.
All of that, and while it was called a League, it was a monarchy, an Empire.
If the Great Houses all voted again for a new First Lord when the last one died, it might have stuck longer.
The SLDF was got most of its personel from outside of the Terran Hegemony - if they try to take a House out, many of those men will defect back to their old region
While the SLDF in general and the Royal units in particular had the best technology, the Houses would generally try to keep the most promising personel for their own House armies - the SLDF got the dregs skill-wise
The Gunsliner program helped close that gap but I dont't think it mattered much over large numbers - the SLDF couldn't send Gunslingers everywhere in a big fight.
Externally there's trade-offs like this all over in BatrleTech - waeapon ranges, heat, damage, rate of fire
Hi-tech stuff is expensive and rare
Clanners have super-soldiers in super-mechs, but they have a poor economic base backing it up and lack Spheroid rat-cunning
Is this a composite of the last few videos that have been released? Or is there something new here?
It's the same (minus a few tiny corrections and changes). When I finish a series I usually upload them into a compilation as it's easier to share.
Ahh free worlds league never change.
Trust no one, not even yourself.
I offer a sacrifice to the algorithm, bless this video with views
Thank you? I'm not sure if I want to know what was sacrificed.
@@SvenVanDerPlank A virgin Urbanmech.
OMG YOUR MAPS ARE BLACK NOW THANK YOU I LOVE YOU MY EYES CAN REST NOW srsly ur shit is so good ty
It was one of the most common bits of feedback I got. They were due for an overhaul anyway so I remade them with the dark background as requested.
Where are the maps all taken from?
I make them myself. I believe I linked them in the description for my latest video.
Can someone enlighten me on why there are so medieval titles in a sci-fi setting?
It's just one of the central themes of the BT universe. Faster than light travel and communication is heavily restricted in BT, so the idea is that it was functionally impossible to operate a democracy at anything more than a planetary scale. So over the centuries, humanity regressed back into a feudal system, bringing with it those archaic terms and titles.
The writers trying not to implied the free world league challenge: fucking impossible
Any plans to insert subtitles for this too?
Sorry, I must have missed this one. I do try to upload my script as subtitles for each of my videos but frequently forget as it doesn't work until after the video is done processing. I'll try to remember when I get back from work this evening.
That should be the subtitles uploaded now. I just insert my scripts into auto-sync so not sure how effective that is. Let me know if you come across any problems and I can try to manually correct them.
37:00 too quickly
Wth happened did Simon kill himself!?!
I answer that at the beginning of the next episode.
You know? We give the Capellan Confederation a ration of shit for being shifty, backstabbity Space North Korea, but the Draconis Combine has been transparently, almost openly disloyal since before there *was* a Capellan Confederation.
The lesson there is that if the Capellans were more openly villainous, then people would respect them a lot more.
so youtube is pulling the unsub BS again and they are going one step further. I could not find your channel trough my view history it was actively hiding your and other channels from search results, i finally found it again via searching for battletech and it only showed 1 video from your older ones and not the newer ones i watched..
Sorry you're having that trouble. That's unfortunately something I can't really influence or fix. Don't know what's going on behind the scenes there.
A complete 150 years... Intro graphic says 2600-2650.
The video has four chapters. The first is 2600-2650.
I hate to be that asshole but when the command and conquer 3 video?
More folk asked me to play Generals first so I've been playing that instead. C&C3 won't be for a long time yet I'm afraid. Sorry.
@@SvenVanDerPlank oh... Just know that GLA postal service isn't responsible for damage goods
Not much different the 40k universe!!
This is the most comprehensive battletech lore channel i have found by far. Love the other guys too but my god am i glad that ive foumd this. Great stuff