I paint my units in a variety of camo patterns. I don't put on any logos of faction symbols. this keeps my entire collection always available for any game I play.
Honestly, I'm not a big lore guy. However with the kickstarter, some of the items were designed with faction specific logos. For no reason I could define I went with Goliath Scorpions. A few days back, I looked up that faction on Sarna. There initial Kahn came from the SLDF Corps of Engineers. I was a Combat Engineer during my time in the military. Kismet? Who knows. SAPPERS lead the way!
The best faction for a beginner is an inner sphere mercenary unit, because it gives you the most flexibility. It can fit into just about any era, and gives you a reason to include just about any unit, so you have the most flexibility to try stuff out. Make your own mercenary unit and paint scheme, and branch out from there. As for me, I rep the Aurigan Coalition on the IS side and the Raven Alliance on the C side. The Coalition was a great faction to get into because it gave me an excuse to do all sorts of different (canon) paint schemes as I was warming up and learning how to paint again, including a unit that canonically uses any paint scheme desired (including false flag paint schemes from other houses/units), so I could truly go wild with my painting. The Ravens are cool because they use units that most players fear and don't understand (aerospace fighters, protomechs) and have some cool paint schemes and great faction-specific mechs.
Started waaaaay back in 85 as a Periphery Rat, repping Redjack Ryans pirates. Loved the symbol. Then moved on to promoting Steiner. Many of my friends were pro-Steiner, and i got hooked. Then became a fanboy for Wolf during the Clix era. Stayed a fan for a long time until the obvious plot armor started to make me feel robbed of any real victory. So i decided from there to really dive in and think about who to rep. Following Clan tradition, i traced my matrilineal line back to the name Mitchell. Thats a Clan Hell's Horses bloodname. Coincidentally, according to the Chinese zodiac, im also born in the year of the Horse under the element of Fire. Plus, their "man over machine" echoes the badass speech by James Earl Jones in Conan. "What is the sword compared to thd hand that weilds it". Clan Hells Horses developed two of my favorite things to field, the Nova Prime and Elementals, and theyre non-judgemental of freeborns and solhama. AND, as a Gen Xer who grew up in the age of muscle cars, hot rods and drag racing, painting my units in black with hotrod flames is second nature. Sold. Totally a Hells Horse from here on
My favorite faction is Clan Coyote. I'm a chemist and a faction that valued science so highly drew my attention. I also found their interest in native North American culture attractive as my grandmother is a native who grew up on the reserve. Perfect faction for me though they no longer exist in the modern timeline.
I picked a faction by falling in love with the Nightstar and then finding out which factions it worked with in the era of the next local event…thus my Comstar force was born. And then I found out that the celestial mechs I had been buying for close to a decade were from extra crazy Comstar and I realized it was pre-ordained. You can’t stop the signal.
A typical ComStar Lv 2 will field a combined arms unit consisting on 4 mechs and 2 vehicles, though after the Clan Invasion and widespread use of Inner Sphere battle armor they began swapping out a mech or vehicle for a squad of battle armor. Clans always maintain groups of 5, though some combine them into what are called novas, which are usually 5 mechs and 5 battle armor points (squads). Some Clans use vehicles or aerospace fighters instead of elementals, in this case it is 2 vehicles per point instead of 5 elementals or 1 mech (eg: 10 vehicles/fighters, 25 elementals = Clan star). The combining 2 or 3 novas is called a supernova, but are rare, above that would just be typical clusters and galaxies.
I started with ComStar and smoke jaguar back in the 90s. One Star smoke jaguar, one level ii ComStar. Plus a Phoenix Hawk lam. Now, in the modern context, my gaming club decided they wanted to run a campaign from 3025 to the illclan era. I had smoke jaguar and ComStar ready to go. But that's kinda a dead end after the word of blake. So I went rogue. Painted up a word of blake, Shadow company 52nd. Black legs, red body, golden tan arms. Expecting to go merc after the blakeist conversion campaign Then I started digging through the clans/periphery/mercs for something interesting to play. I knew all the houses, Wolf, ghost bear, jade falcon were all going to get represented. All the major merc companies had been spoken for. So I was seeking a deep cut, or just giving up and going full merc,something i had never done. I landed on scorpion empire/Goliath scorpion or sea fox. Got a phone call obe if the kids wanted sea fox. Well, turns out Goliath scorpion had a tan, red and a tan dark gray galaxy paint scheme. So I blendered it. Omni's got a dark Grey body, red arms/tan legs or red legs/tan arms. Giving me two omni invasion forces. Second line got whole body golden tan, then panels in red and dark Grey. I went back and changed the word of blake stuff to the dark gray legs. So I could run the word of blake mechs, as empire mechs come the illclan era. Then i Painted up my Commander mechs with a dark Grey body, red and tan panel highlights. Giving me an entire star worth of mechs as a black ops unit.
I'm currently throwing together some OC lore for a mercenary company that formed after stealing a Brian Cache out from under the Wobbies in the FWL. Haven't settled on a paint scheme yet, but I'm stoked for it
House Leal value loyalty *and* will stab you in the back. That made me giggle a bit. Thanks for this video, I've been wanting to know what Battletech factions were available but everything else was a little too hectic for me to get a good grasp on what factions were out there!
I try to paint(when I actually paint) my mechs as independents or a few factions(Kurita, comstar, Steiner) but I really stick to camouflage, greys, and reds. I can’t imagine someone would paint a battle weapon like a tank in parade colors.
@@dbul2542 but the camo is more to hide it from the air support . You will notice a formation of mechs in battle. It’s when they are sitting idle the camo comes into play. If you think about how much we spend on paint, imagine the logistics and budget of keeping thousands of mechs painted . Then throw in stripes and checkerboards…
The last time I mentioned Camo in bt someone told me “we act like Camo in the bt makes a difference and that IR for heat signatures with units rocking fusion cores isn’t a thing.” To that I responded…”yeah, you right” lol
I loved Clan Wolf as a kid so I started there when I came back to the universe circa 2021. Then I moved on to Kurita’s 6th Ghost, now I’m working on Capellans. Got my eye on ComStar but I really don’t want to paint another white paint scheme 😂
On the note of the Free Worlds League: I don't think Charette ever wrote a book called Free Worlds Guard. As for their paint scheme Purple with Blue and red stripes makes their Militia colors. In terms of stories To Ride the Chimera talks about the League being pieced together during the Dark Age so that might be worth a recommend. For the Word of Blake I also recommend Ideal War if you can find the book. It's a decent story about the Blakists taking a planet in the Free Worlds League and it also hints at what they do in the later eras. Republic of the Sphere, Field Manual 3085 or the Jihad Hot Spots Terra sourcebook. For the Star League and the Clanners I think the Foundation of the Clans books would be a good trilogy for people to pick up and see the inevitable fall of the League and the rise of the Clans
A nice breakdown for everyone. I went with a Free Worlds League based Merc force and the Iron Guard. For the Clan, I went with Diamond Shark/Sea Fox because of the lore and Jade Falcon as my secondary force :)
Definitely like the Cheetahs!! I was really cheering for them to get away with a Tripod Mech, lol. It would have been fun to see a Merc unit with an Ares!
I have an Ares class mech in my collection specifically earmarked for them ;) even if the lore doesn't say they have one. The unit itself definitely has some members who could get one up and running.
Eridani Light Horse. I liked the fact that they were trying to keep the memory of the Star League alive as well as them having an easy paint scheme and an interesting name.
I personally have a soft spot for the 21st Centuri Lancers, and I want to field them, with any aerospace assets being painted with the Killer Bees scheme. Buuuut, my favourite Mechs are the Capellan ones, since they're so scrappy (and I really like the whole electronic warfare angle they often go for). However, the Lancers avoid using Capellan Mechs. Sooo... What I'm planning on doing is to use the Lancers for most Mechs, the Killer Bees for aerospace, and for ground troops plus Capellan Mechs, I want to use a homebrew Merc Company I made up, called The Workers' Free Company. The WFC came about from a Mech and Space assets factory on some asteroid, and, through some Capellan-style cunning, they overthrew the local authorities, stole any ships, Mechs, and whatever blueprints they could get their hands on, and yeeted themselves out into Periphery space... So, like the Lancers and Bees, the WFC won't work with the Capellans, but, thanks to their... Reappropriation of assets, they use their Mechs lol Ofc, the planned paint scheme for those boys will be a full grey, with the torso painted to look like a high-vis vest, and the head painted in hard-hat yellow. :p
Good overview. I decided to paint most of my mechs either green camo or tan camo patterns (the classic green vs tan army men that I grew up with!). Though it might annoy purists, I figured classic military paint schemes would work for a wide variety of games. Also, I did paint a few in Lyran and Kurita colors because they seemed like natural opponents.
I have a Liao Warrior House, a Clan Protectorate Cluster, a generic inner sphere Night Camo unit. And a Word of Blake Manei Domini level III leaning up towards a level IV so far.
With my first mechs from the Alpha Strike box, I did red, blue, green, and urban camo on different mechs, 2 of each. Mostly because I don't know what faction I would like to paint them as, and tending to do custom schemes on my minis in general. I might like the sound of the Northwind Highlanders, since Scottish mercenaries sounds kinda cool, and on camo spec it says they change their camo. Painting Tartan might be too much for me though
No choosing. Going to paint a company per house, a binary per clan, lance per major mercenary. At least that's the plan. Each house company going to be 3 different lances - eg sword of light, genyosha, and ghost for Kurita
I’m not as familiar with most of the lore, I’ve only heard of stuff from the trilogy book with Aiden Pryde. If you wanna share some CJF lore feel free :)
@@Thearmedpainter For the purposes of engagement (all hail the mighty algorithm) and you asked, sure! Zeroing In (Battlecorps Anthology 1) it was a prequel to the Jade Phoenix trilogy featuring the Falconer Joanna. Basically a few moments before she bursts into the scene from the trilogy. Jade Phoenix Trilogy: Three books telling the tale of Aidan Pryde, a very notable figure in the Falcon history. The Blood of Kerensky Trilogy do have some Falcon characters but its not focused on Falcons specifically. Natural Selection: a novel depicting a Jade Falcon unit that goes raiding in FedCom territory after Tukayyid. Bred for War: This talks about the beginning of the Refusal War (Mechwarrior 2, the Clan game) between Wolf and Falcon. It also features Inner Sphere stuff in this book because of course it will. I am Jade Falcon: Star Commander Joanna and Khan Natasha Kerensky throw down and someone walks away from it. The other person gets a really intense tanning session with jump jets in the face. Malicious Intent: The Refusal War is over, the Falcons are trying to absorb the Wolves, it doesn't work out for them. Also the Falcons try to attack a FedCom world called Coventry. This slowly helps bring the Inner Sphere together again which will be a bad thing for the Jaguars later on. Freebirth, book 4 in the Twilight of the Clans series. Aidan Pryde's freeborn daughter tries to earn the Pryde bloodname because of course she will. Joanna and Horse (the latter being Aidan's friend) have things to do here as well. This slowly brings up how the science caste is doing something funky with research and may or may not lead to the Wars of Reaving many years later. The Twilight of the Clans series isn't just about the Smoke Jaguars getting their whuppings, it's also about how many big named Clans went through changes in their lives thanks to the Inner Sphere or just the Clans themselves doing things. Falcon Rising, book 8 in the Twilight of the Clans series. Khan Martha Pryde has to bloody her new soldiers, Diana Pryde works closer to the goal of earning her father's bloodname. A decent book overall on its own. That's all for the "Classic" Legends books, now moving onto the more recent Dark Age and IlClan era because I can't stop being a nerd about things. Flight of the Falcon is the first Dark Age book really focusing on the Clan as they talk about Malvina and Alex begin to fight as Falcons. Both are Hazen kids, Malvina is kept in check by her sibkin, if anything were to happen to him this would be bad. Note from the future: bad things happen. Blood of the Isle, Malvina decides to be Malvina. In other news, Blood for the Blood God. Water is wet, back to you Chet Ubetcha with Sports. A Rending of Falcons, because just fighting the Inner Sphere isn't enough; Malvina figures the Falcons themselves need a civil war. Because Clanner upper management has mobility if you kill people. Also she found a neat parking spot for a warship of hers, on the capital world where their Khan resides. People who read this book will snort out a chuckle at my reference because they get it. A Bonfire of Worlds, Malvina is adopting the Mongol Doctrine. It was a way of war that the Hell's Horses created, she took it and twisted it because of course she will. Once again Blood for the Blood God. The Sky is Blue. Other obvious things put here. Children of Kerensky: A book literally about Malvina Hazen and Alaric Ward's past, the Khans of Jade Falcon and Wolf respectively. Malvina was made because some Falconers that crafted her figured they weren't winning as hard as they could. So instead of making the next Aidan Pryde, you know a Falcon who wasn't totally sociopathic, they figured "what if we did the reverse and made a sociopath?" Interesting strategy there Cotton, let's see how that pans out. Hour of the Wolf: The big battle for Terra between the Wolves, Falcons, and Republic of the Sphere. A Question of Survival and the other book Without Question: two books dealing with a remnant Falcon force led by Jiyi Chistu. Basically not all Falcons could make it to Terra for the big brawl. They don't know Malvina lost and is dead yet, later on they find out. Now they're the only Falcons left. However they have the military might of old men and paper cardboard, so Jiyi decides to become the new Khan of these Falcons and not be completely insane. Hells Horses and other nearby powers test these Falcons to see if they can actually survive. This is where we're at now. Falcons went from the "Vegeta" clan to Blood for the Blood God, to the survivalists trying to claw their way back to being alive.
So my primary faction I play is Davion. They have been so since I was in 7th grade (over 20 years ago). But over the years and reading books and learning the lore I have now focused one a few factions. Robinson's Rangers is my primary Davion unit from the planet of Robinson wich is the capitol of the Draconis March. They are lead by the Duke of Robinson, and are fanatically loyal to him. Since I was sitting in the library of the school looking at technical readouts and my eyes fell uppon the Highlander I have never loved a mech as much as I do my original favorit. Add to it my own scottish heiratage and today I play bagpipes and wear kilts its no wonder my Mercenary faction is The Northwind Highlanders. Then one day I started learning about the clans. And well I have borrowed a phrase, "the only good clan is a dead one" by that I mean of course Clan Wolverine. Lol So my last faction unlike the 2 above does not exist in all eras. Clan wolverine was betrayed by the other clans and hunted down and mostly wiped out. But they do span several eras as the 331 Battle Mech Regiment in star league and the once seen but not mentioned since Minnesota Tribe they are a wild card faction that I can add in anywhere as mercs or star league or early clan fights with some of my own head cannon and theories.
A reinforced Lance has 2 Aerospace assets or ground vehicles added onto the 4 Battlemechs. These are usually for recon, but could preform any role the lance needs.
Oh man. I’m Clan Wolf-In-Exile so I have all the Galaxy schemes going there with my two primaries being Alpha Galaxy and Beta Galaxy 13 Wolf Guards. Then I have my Nova Cats I’m doing for my S/O. To keep with the Arc Royal ties my IS faction is the Kells, which I’m slacking on majorly. I did a random Star of Jade Falcons for fun. Loaded up in the chute I have Smoke Jaguars, Raven Alliance, Hell’s Horses, and for my final IS forces some generic Star League olive drab and Invasion era Comguard. Whew, I need to get off You Tube and paint.
Dude great video. One if the cool things about the FWL is how many different liveries and color schemes. Marik Militia is a popular one but you have the Atrean Hussars, Regulan Hussars, Orloff grenadiers.
I was originally going to go with Draconis Combine, but didn’t feel great with it. I liked the honor aspects but I was liking my tan mech scheme. I wound up moving my Inner Sphere mechs into irregulars around the Free Rasalhague Republic. Having “done my own thing” with the inner sphere mechs, I felt compelled to pick something from the lore for clans. I wound up with ghost bear specifically because of the fact they go on to integrate the worlds they conquer and build an assimilated society instead of trying to solely play conqueror like Wolf or to expunge the populations like Jade Falcon. That said, I finally read Hour of the Wolf and dammit I want Wolf beta galaxy
7:15 - I tried reading that trilogy a year or two ago. Maybe it would have been better if I was 12 years old reading it instead of over 40, but I found it incredibly cringe, with no likable characters. It felt kinda like fanfiction. I wasn't even able to get through the first book.
Maybe you would know to whom a discrepancy with CSO color scheme could be submitted. I know CSO is cannon but I encountered a difference between theirs and a few other places concerning a Snow Raven force and wanted more info.
@@Thearmedpainter I believe I noticed the Kappa galaxy has a discrepancy between CSO and Unit Color Compendium (non-cannon, I know) and I’m obsessing over the faction right now.
Great video yet again. I was introduced and grew up with MW2 like so many others, and for me it was Clan Wolf all of the way. I didn't really start playing the series though, until MW2 Mercenaries and I will always remember the Hansen's Roughriders. Now with the tabletop, I went back to my origins and started with painting Clan Wolf as my first major faction, and will always have my heart with them. Now though, I realized I needed an IS house to represent and so I fell in line with the Capellans. Currently working on completing my first company of 9th Sian Dragoons and then maybe more once my KS stuff gets in.
not once in any of the games of battletech have i picked a faction. or time period. i think about as deep ive gone is inner sphere vs clans. it just never comes up.
I think the term for Steiner is they field 4 assault mechs for a scout lance. Having said that they have the wolf hound which is an awesome light mech.
That's the meme, but it' not true at all based on the Lore. They have some of best light/scout mechs, like the wolfhound as you point out, also the commando.
The clans are honor bound crazies. And the inner sphere is a bunch of hypocritical "we're here to help, ourselves." and that's why I found myself in the periphery. A land of self determination(to be raided by pirates) with a steong sense of self(because my face hurts where the pirates punched me) and the Irish Roman empire(who are a bit pirate like.) Real talk though I do like the periphery I find it's smaller weirder factions and pirates interesting. In fact my in lore group is a band of basically privateers in that they are pirates but they do a decent amount of mercenary work several times for or against Comstar. With the goal of trying to get the industry they need to keep their home hidden in the deep periphery going and building up. Maybe even getting the mostly finished jump ship factory done. I do find the ghost bears very interesting. And I can't like House Liao because they have betrayed me too many times in the video games but I gotta respect them for holding on as they have.
How to pick a Battletech faction for beginners: Option 1: Periphery (hippity hoppity get off my property) Option 2: Clan Wolverine (told Nicholas to fuck off right to his face) Everything else is just different degrees of "wrong" and/or "not people".
As someone who likes the perpetually "OpFor" factions, I can agree. Play what you like!
I paint my units in a variety of camo patterns. I don't put on any logos of faction symbols. this keeps my entire collection always available for any game I play.
Same! My headcanon are mercs who paint their mechs according to the operation they are in
Honestly, I'm not a big lore guy. However with the kickstarter, some of the items were designed with faction specific logos. For no reason I could define I went with Goliath Scorpions. A few days back, I looked up that faction on Sarna. There initial Kahn came from the SLDF Corps of Engineers. I was a Combat Engineer during my time in the military. Kismet? Who knows. SAPPERS lead the way!
The best faction for a beginner is an inner sphere mercenary unit, because it gives you the most flexibility. It can fit into just about any era, and gives you a reason to include just about any unit, so you have the most flexibility to try stuff out. Make your own mercenary unit and paint scheme, and branch out from there.
As for me, I rep the Aurigan Coalition on the IS side and the Raven Alliance on the C side. The Coalition was a great faction to get into because it gave me an excuse to do all sorts of different (canon) paint schemes as I was warming up and learning how to paint again, including a unit that canonically uses any paint scheme desired (including false flag paint schemes from other houses/units), so I could truly go wild with my painting. The Ravens are cool because they use units that most players fear and don't understand (aerospace fighters, protomechs) and have some cool paint schemes and great faction-specific mechs.
This is such a great jumping off point. Thank you for putting it together.
Cool you “made” a mercenary group and paint scheme that became lore! Very cool!
Started waaaaay back in 85 as a Periphery Rat, repping Redjack Ryans pirates. Loved the symbol.
Then moved on to promoting Steiner. Many of my friends were pro-Steiner, and i got hooked.
Then became a fanboy for Wolf during the Clix era. Stayed a fan for a long time until the obvious plot armor started to make me feel robbed of any real victory.
So i decided from there to really dive in and think about who to rep. Following Clan tradition, i traced my matrilineal line back to the name Mitchell. Thats a Clan Hell's Horses bloodname. Coincidentally, according to the Chinese zodiac, im also born in the year of the Horse under the element of Fire. Plus, their "man over machine" echoes the badass speech by James Earl Jones in Conan. "What is the sword compared to thd hand that weilds it". Clan Hells Horses developed two of my favorite things to field, the Nova Prime and Elementals, and theyre non-judgemental of freeborns and solhama. AND, as a Gen Xer who grew up in the age of muscle cars, hot rods and drag racing, painting my units in black with hotrod flames is second nature.
Sold. Totally a Hells Horse from here on
My favorite faction is Clan Coyote. I'm a chemist and a faction that valued science so highly drew my attention. I also found their interest in native North American culture attractive as my grandmother is a native who grew up on the reserve. Perfect faction for me though they no longer exist in the modern timeline.
I picked a faction by falling in love with the Nightstar and then finding out which factions it worked with in the era of the next local event…thus my Comstar force was born.
And then I found out that the celestial mechs I had been buying for close to a decade were from extra crazy Comstar and I realized it was pre-ordained.
You can’t stop the signal.
For New Avalon, For House Davion, For Duke Erik Sandoval!
I went with Charon's Children for my pirates, pretty exited to start painting.
Davion since 1989, here. ^_^ But I've also built up the Wolves on the side. Which means, either way in 3152, I'm serving a Steiner-Davion.
Really loved the showcase of all different CSO artists on this vid!
A typical ComStar Lv 2 will field a combined arms unit consisting on 4 mechs and 2 vehicles, though after the Clan Invasion and widespread use of Inner Sphere battle armor they began swapping out a mech or vehicle for a squad of battle armor.
Clans always maintain groups of 5, though some combine them into what are called novas, which are usually 5 mechs and 5 battle armor points (squads). Some Clans use vehicles or aerospace fighters instead of elementals, in this case it is 2 vehicles per point instead of 5 elementals or 1 mech (eg: 10 vehicles/fighters, 25 elementals = Clan star). The combining 2 or 3 novas is called a supernova, but are rare, above that would just be typical clusters and galaxies.
I went the easy route and painted up two merc companies. One is Wolfs dragoons and the other is blue star irregulars.
I started with ComStar and smoke jaguar back in the 90s.
One Star smoke jaguar,
one level ii ComStar. Plus a Phoenix Hawk lam.
Now, in the modern context, my gaming club decided they wanted to run a campaign from 3025 to the illclan era.
I had smoke jaguar and ComStar ready to go. But that's kinda a dead end after the word of blake.
So I went rogue.
Painted up a word of blake, Shadow company 52nd. Black legs, red body, golden tan arms. Expecting to go merc after the blakeist conversion campaign
Then I started digging through the clans/periphery/mercs for something interesting to play. I knew all the houses, Wolf, ghost bear, jade falcon were all going to get represented. All the major merc companies had been spoken for. So I was seeking a deep cut, or just giving up and going full merc,something i had never done.
I landed on scorpion empire/Goliath scorpion or sea fox. Got a phone call obe if the kids wanted sea fox.
Well, turns out Goliath scorpion had a tan, red and a tan dark gray galaxy paint scheme. So I blendered it.
Omni's got a dark Grey body, red arms/tan legs or red legs/tan arms. Giving me two omni invasion forces.
Second line got whole body golden tan, then panels in red and dark Grey.
I went back and changed the word of blake stuff to the dark gray legs. So I could run the word of blake mechs, as empire mechs come the illclan era.
Then i Painted up my Commander mechs with a dark Grey body, red and tan panel highlights. Giving me an entire star worth of mechs as a black ops unit.
I'm currently throwing together some OC lore for a mercenary company that formed after stealing a Brian Cache out from under the Wobbies in the FWL. Haven't settled on a paint scheme yet, but I'm stoked for it
Bro, great video as always! Your video effects bleeding over onto you had me thinking someone put something in my coffee!😂
Faction? Singular? Man, some of you all have great self control
House Leal value loyalty *and* will stab you in the back. That made me giggle a bit.
Thanks for this video, I've been wanting to know what Battletech factions were available but everything else was a little too hectic for me to get a good grasp on what factions were out there!
I have been having to come to the realization that there are no "good guys" in this setting. But I do love me some clan Ghost Bear.
I try to paint(when I actually paint) my mechs as independents or a few factions(Kurita, comstar, Steiner) but I really stick to camouflage, greys, and reds. I can’t imagine someone would paint a battle weapon like a tank in parade colors.
Yeah but the enemy’s gonna be expecting mechs in camouflage! *taps head meme
@@dbul2542 but the camo is more to hide it from the air support . You will notice a formation of mechs in battle. It’s when they are sitting idle the camo comes into play.
If you think about how much we spend on paint, imagine the logistics and budget of keeping thousands of mechs painted . Then throw in stripes and checkerboards…
The last time I mentioned Camo in bt someone told me “we act like Camo in the bt makes a difference and that IR for heat signatures with units rocking fusion cores isn’t a thing.”
To that I responded…”yeah, you right” lol
I loved Clan Wolf as a kid so I started there when I came back to the universe circa 2021. Then I moved on to Kurita’s 6th Ghost, now I’m working on Capellans. Got my eye on ComStar but I really don’t want to paint another white paint scheme 😂
Glory to the Celestial Throne!
Xin Sheng!
For the Dragon!!! Kurita is the way.
On the note of the Free Worlds League:
I don't think Charette ever wrote a book called Free Worlds Guard.
As for their paint scheme Purple with Blue and red stripes makes their Militia colors.
In terms of stories To Ride the Chimera talks about the League being pieced together during the Dark Age so that might be worth a recommend.
For the Word of Blake I also recommend Ideal War if you can find the book. It's a decent story about the Blakists taking a planet in the Free Worlds League and it also hints at what they do in the later eras.
Republic of the Sphere, Field Manual 3085 or the Jihad Hot Spots Terra sourcebook.
For the Star League and the Clanners I think the Foundation of the Clans books would be a good trilogy for people to pick up and see the inevitable fall of the League and the rise of the Clans
A nice breakdown for everyone.
I went with a Free Worlds League based Merc force and the Iron Guard. For the Clan, I went with Diamond Shark/Sea Fox because of the lore and Jade Falcon as my secondary force :)
Great video! My top three factions are Fedsuns, Comstar, and Smoke Jaguars. Looking forward to more videos.
PURPLE BIRD STRONG!
Definitely like the Cheetahs!! I was really cheering for them to get away with a Tripod Mech, lol. It would have been fun to see a Merc unit with an Ares!
I have an Ares class mech in my collection specifically earmarked for them ;) even if the lore doesn't say they have one. The unit itself definitely has some members who could get one up and running.
Eridani Light Horse. I liked the fact that they were trying to keep the memory of the Star League alive as well as them having an easy paint scheme and an interesting name.
Comstar 4 lyfe
My Level III are called "The Bill Collectors"
Comstar 4 life
You used to call me on my cell phone
You used to you used to
The clan wolf plot armor is strong! Almost as strong as that of the ultrasmurfs!
Noble but awesome but amazing but also awesome!!!
Ugh. We get it. Just stop hitting us in the face with it. Please!
I personally have a soft spot for the 21st Centuri Lancers, and I want to field them, with any aerospace assets being painted with the Killer Bees scheme.
Buuuut, my favourite Mechs are the Capellan ones, since they're so scrappy (and I really like the whole electronic warfare angle they often go for). However, the Lancers avoid using Capellan Mechs.
Sooo... What I'm planning on doing is to use the Lancers for most Mechs, the Killer Bees for aerospace, and for ground troops plus Capellan Mechs, I want to use a homebrew Merc Company I made up, called The Workers' Free Company.
The WFC came about from a Mech and Space assets factory on some asteroid, and, through some Capellan-style cunning, they overthrew the local authorities, stole any ships, Mechs, and whatever blueprints they could get their hands on, and yeeted themselves out into Periphery space... So, like the Lancers and Bees, the WFC won't work with the Capellans, but, thanks to their... Reappropriation of assets, they use their Mechs lol
Ofc, the planned paint scheme for those boys will be a full grey, with the torso painted to look like a high-vis vest, and the head painted in hard-hat yellow. :p
Good overview. I decided to paint most of my mechs either green camo or tan camo patterns (the classic green vs tan army men that I grew up with!). Though it might annoy purists, I figured classic military paint schemes would work for a wide variety of games. Also, I did paint a few in Lyran and Kurita colors because they seemed like natural opponents.
I'm going to play the "Return of the Wolverines" written by Trish Ebon
I have a Liao Warrior House, a Clan Protectorate Cluster, a generic inner sphere Night Camo unit. And a Word of Blake Manei Domini level III leaning up towards a level IV so far.
For Rasalhague…! Oh. Oops. I meant Ghost Bear Dominion!
Just found your channel. Love me some battletech. Subscribed good sir.
Mercs for sure. I have a soft spot for the One Eyed Jacks. It was our campaign for years and then was canonized in the official lore.
With my first mechs from the Alpha Strike box, I did red, blue, green, and urban camo on different mechs, 2 of each. Mostly because I don't know what faction I would like to paint them as, and tending to do custom schemes on my minis in general. I might like the sound of the Northwind Highlanders, since Scottish mercenaries sounds kinda cool, and on camo spec it says they change their camo. Painting Tartan might be too much for me though
No choosing. Going to paint a company per house, a binary per clan, lance per major mercenary. At least that's the plan. Each house company going to be 3 different lances - eg sword of light, genyosha, and ghost for Kurita
Lyran Commonwealth. More and less stupid decisions since 2341. I love 'em!
Oh ya cuz Elizabeth and all the other falcon Khan's pre 3150 were totally chill and sane...
I’m not as familiar with most of the lore, I’ve only heard of stuff from the trilogy book with Aiden Pryde. If you wanna share some CJF lore feel free :)
@@Thearmedpainter Falcons be crazy is the TLDR.
@@Thearmedpainter For the purposes of engagement (all hail the mighty algorithm) and you asked, sure!
Zeroing In (Battlecorps Anthology 1) it was a prequel to the Jade Phoenix trilogy featuring the Falconer Joanna. Basically a few moments before she bursts into the scene from the trilogy.
Jade Phoenix Trilogy: Three books telling the tale of Aidan Pryde, a very notable figure in the Falcon history.
The Blood of Kerensky Trilogy do have some Falcon characters but its not focused on Falcons specifically.
Natural Selection: a novel depicting a Jade Falcon unit that goes raiding in FedCom territory after Tukayyid.
Bred for War: This talks about the beginning of the Refusal War (Mechwarrior 2, the Clan game) between Wolf and Falcon. It also features Inner Sphere stuff in this book because of course it will.
I am Jade Falcon: Star Commander Joanna and Khan Natasha Kerensky throw down and someone walks away from it. The other person gets a really intense tanning session with jump jets in the face.
Malicious Intent: The Refusal War is over, the Falcons are trying to absorb the Wolves, it doesn't work out for them. Also the Falcons try to attack a FedCom world called Coventry. This slowly helps bring the Inner Sphere together again which will be a bad thing for the Jaguars later on.
Freebirth, book 4 in the Twilight of the Clans series. Aidan Pryde's freeborn daughter tries to earn the Pryde bloodname because of course she will. Joanna and Horse (the latter being Aidan's friend) have things to do here as well. This slowly brings up how the science caste is doing something funky with research and may or may not lead to the Wars of Reaving many years later.
The Twilight of the Clans series isn't just about the Smoke Jaguars getting their whuppings, it's also about how many big named Clans went through changes in their lives thanks to the Inner Sphere or just the Clans themselves doing things.
Falcon Rising, book 8 in the Twilight of the Clans series. Khan Martha Pryde has to bloody her new soldiers, Diana Pryde works closer to the goal of earning her father's bloodname. A decent book overall on its own.
That's all for the "Classic" Legends books, now moving onto the more recent Dark Age and IlClan era because I can't stop being a nerd about things.
Flight of the Falcon is the first Dark Age book really focusing on the Clan as they talk about Malvina and Alex begin to fight as Falcons. Both are Hazen kids, Malvina is kept in check by her sibkin, if anything were to happen to him this would be bad.
Note from the future: bad things happen.
Blood of the Isle, Malvina decides to be Malvina. In other news, Blood for the Blood God. Water is wet, back to you Chet Ubetcha with Sports.
A Rending of Falcons, because just fighting the Inner Sphere isn't enough; Malvina figures the Falcons themselves need a civil war. Because Clanner upper management has mobility if you kill people. Also she found a neat parking spot for a warship of hers, on the capital world where their Khan resides. People who read this book will snort out a chuckle at my reference because they get it.
A Bonfire of Worlds, Malvina is adopting the Mongol Doctrine. It was a way of war that the Hell's Horses created, she took it and twisted it because of course she will. Once again Blood for the Blood God. The Sky is Blue. Other obvious things put here.
Children of Kerensky: A book literally about Malvina Hazen and Alaric Ward's past, the Khans of Jade Falcon and Wolf respectively. Malvina was made because some Falconers that crafted her figured they weren't winning as hard as they could. So instead of making the next Aidan Pryde, you know a Falcon who wasn't totally sociopathic, they figured "what if we did the reverse and made a sociopath?" Interesting strategy there Cotton, let's see how that pans out.
Hour of the Wolf: The big battle for Terra between the Wolves, Falcons, and Republic of the Sphere.
A Question of Survival and the other book Without Question: two books dealing with a remnant Falcon force led by Jiyi Chistu. Basically not all Falcons could make it to Terra for the big brawl. They don't know Malvina lost and is dead yet, later on they find out. Now they're the only Falcons left. However they have the military might of old men and paper cardboard, so Jiyi decides to become the new Khan of these Falcons and not be completely insane. Hells Horses and other nearby powers test these Falcons to see if they can actually survive.
This is where we're at now. Falcons went from the "Vegeta" clan to Blood for the Blood God, to the survivalists trying to claw their way back to being alive.
So my primary faction I play is Davion. They have been so since I was in 7th grade (over 20 years ago). But over the years and reading books and learning the lore I have now focused one a few factions.
Robinson's Rangers is my primary Davion unit from the planet of Robinson wich is the capitol of the Draconis March. They are lead by the Duke of Robinson, and are fanatically loyal to him.
Since I was sitting in the library of the school looking at technical readouts and my eyes fell uppon the Highlander I have never loved a mech as much as I do my original favorit. Add to it my own scottish heiratage and today I play bagpipes and wear kilts its no wonder my Mercenary faction is The Northwind Highlanders.
Then one day I started learning about the clans. And well I have borrowed a phrase, "the only good clan is a dead one" by that I mean of course Clan Wolverine. Lol
So my last faction unlike the 2 above does not exist in all eras. Clan wolverine was betrayed by the other clans and hunted down and mostly wiped out. But they do span several eras as the 331 Battle Mech Regiment in star league and the once seen but not mentioned since Minnesota Tribe they are a wild card faction that I can add in anywhere as mercs or star league or early clan fights with some of my own head cannon and theories.
Clan Ghost Bear for life!
I have so many mini's that I picked all major factions! LOL. My wallet hurts.
It was cool of you to mention Capellans despite nobody liking them
Yet that puts them in the center of so much lore!
Can't wait to see those ghost bears
I'm reading Heir to the Dragon.
God, guns, and Battletech. It's a mercenary life for me
"Pick"?
Shit, I have like a battalion (or trinary cluster) of almost every faction.
...I may have a slight addiction
A reinforced Lance has 2 Aerospace assets or ground vehicles added onto the 4 Battlemechs.
These are usually for recon, but could preform any role the lance needs.
The Unit Color Compendium is also great for units and paint schemes.
In my company each mech is have a unique paint.
Great suscint overview!
Brotherhood of Randis
🛡️🏰⚔️
Pirates for me, this way I can mix and play whatever I like
My friends and I created a Seagull Raiders merc unit. Dark blue gray torsos and arms, very light gray legs and orange feet. It’s weird but so are we.
Snow Ravens ascendant.
Rule of cool always wins!
Oh man. I’m Clan Wolf-In-Exile so I have all the Galaxy schemes going there with my two primaries being Alpha Galaxy and Beta Galaxy 13 Wolf Guards.
Then I have my Nova Cats I’m doing for my S/O.
To keep with the Arc Royal ties my IS faction is the Kells, which I’m slacking on majorly.
I did a random Star of Jade Falcons for fun.
Loaded up in the chute I have Smoke Jaguars, Raven Alliance, Hell’s Horses, and for my final IS forces some generic Star League olive drab and Invasion era Comguard.
Whew, I need to get off You Tube and paint.
Hail the Chancellor
Dude great video. One if the cool things about the FWL is how many different liveries and color schemes. Marik Militia is a popular one but you have the Atrean Hussars, Regulan Hussars, Orloff grenadiers.
That motion blur every time graphics were up was downright unsettling.
I was originally going to go with Draconis Combine, but didn’t feel great with it. I liked the honor aspects but I was liking my tan mech scheme. I wound up moving my Inner Sphere mechs into irregulars around the Free Rasalhague Republic.
Having “done my own thing” with the inner sphere mechs, I felt compelled to pick something from the lore for clans. I wound up with ghost bear specifically because of the fact they go on to integrate the worlds they conquer and build an assimilated society instead of trying to solely play conqueror like Wolf or to expunge the populations like Jade Falcon.
That said, I finally read Hour of the Wolf and dammit I want Wolf beta galaxy
Wolf’s Dragoons are sad. Ward did them boys dirty. Sign up today!
Great video! Although not mentioning Periphery was a mistake. /arms nukes/
Toss out some Periphery knowledge for us! :) lots of viewers that find my channel are new, could help introduce someone to a new faction!
@@Thearmedpainter, got it!
Federated Suns or mercs!
Great overview!
7:15 - I tried reading that trilogy a year or two ago. Maybe it would have been better if I was 12 years old reading it instead of over 40, but I found it incredibly cringe, with no likable characters. It felt kinda like fanfiction. I wasn't even able to get through the first book.
Play the Clans! Not enough people do.
Maybe you would know to whom a discrepancy with CSO color scheme could be submitted.
I know CSO is cannon but I encountered a difference between theirs and a few other places concerning a Snow Raven force and wanted more info.
What are the other sources?
@@Thearmedpainter I believe I noticed the Kappa galaxy has a discrepancy between CSO and Unit Color Compendium (non-cannon, I know) and I’m obsessing over the faction right now.
Great video yet again. I was introduced and grew up with MW2 like so many others, and for me it was Clan Wolf all of the way. I didn't really start playing the series though, until MW2 Mercenaries and I will always remember the Hansen's Roughriders. Now with the tabletop, I went back to my origins and started with painting Clan Wolf as my first major faction, and will always have my heart with them. Now though, I realized I needed an IS house to represent and so I fell in line with the Capellans. Currently working on completing my first company of 9th Sian Dragoons and then maybe more once my KS stuff gets in.
No Taurian Concordat?! BLASPHEMY! *subscribes anyway*
[Laughs in merc noises]
not once in any of the games of battletech have i picked a faction. or time period. i think about as deep ive gone is inner sphere vs clans. it just never comes up.
Picking a faction... Congratulations for picking Clan Jade Falcon.
😂
Lyran Commonwealth.
I think the term for Steiner is they field 4 assault mechs for a scout lance. Having said that they have the wolf hound which is an awesome light mech.
That's the meme, but it' not true at all based on the Lore. They have some of best light/scout mechs, like the wolfhound as you point out, also the commando.
The clans are honor bound crazies. And the inner sphere is a bunch of hypocritical "we're here to help, ourselves." and that's why I found myself in the periphery. A land of self determination(to be raided by pirates) with a steong sense of self(because my face hurts where the pirates punched me) and the Irish Roman empire(who are a bit pirate like.)
Real talk though I do like the periphery I find it's smaller weirder factions and pirates interesting. In fact my in lore group is a band of basically privateers in that they are pirates but they do a decent amount of mercenary work several times for or against Comstar. With the goal of trying to get the industry they need to keep their home hidden in the deep periphery going and building up. Maybe even getting the mostly finished jump ship factory done.
I do find the ghost bears very interesting. And I can't like House Liao because they have betrayed me too many times in the video games but I gotta respect them for holding on as they have.
You're only supposed to pick one faction ? Oooopppsss I have 9
How to pick a Battletech faction for beginners:
Option 1: Periphery (hippity hoppity get off my property)
Option 2: Clan Wolverine (told Nicholas to fuck off right to his face)
Everything else is just different degrees of "wrong" and/or "not people".
I paint my mechs like my tractors
Kurita is the first and only true Faction 😂