It was a great editorial piece. Spoken from the heart like a true fan. 👍 I don't think it would hurt the Ilkhanate storyline to have a Blakist/Comstar remnant force in existence somewhere picking up the pieces.
@@BigRed40TECH Honest, positive comments will get positive attention from the in-house creators. I've been A fiery, passionate fanboy in the past too. But it's a proverb that one catches more flies with honey than vinegar. Being a great whale might help too lol. 🙂
@@observationsfromthebunker9639 I think the Devs by and large are good people, doing what they can to give us a good story atm, and there is a lot of be excited for. The streaming members more or less asked me to write this, which are my feelings to be clear, but I don't usually like doing editorial pieces tbh.
A counter point. How many generals, platoons, leaders and soldiers have performed *amazing* feats of tactics or military might throughout history? How many of those groups or individuals are remembered in any capacity other than historical? The Spartans pulled off a feat unheard of before or since but how many militaries utilize any of their tactics since? War is a ever shifting beast and militaries large and small, advanced and poor get left behind regardless of their victories or prowess.
Thing is that Comstar always posed a unique threat within BT. Everying else, from the Succession Wars to the Clan Invasion are just conventional military conflicts. Comstar/WoB were beyond just being a conventional military threat, they were an information based superpower. Loosing them with nothing remotely like it to take it's place cheapens the setting, it narrows everything down to just another military threat without having to wonder in the back of you mind if your your serving your own purposes or theirs.
The death of ComStar has really hurt even as someone who doesn't play them much if at all. They felt like an amazing and well fleshed out faction and even had their own unique tech, but now to be relegated to the dustbin...
It is odd that they have invested so much effort into creating a major faction just to destroy it, would be like taking out one of the noble houses just dont make any sense.
@@MrSigmatico i can understand your point, but the issue is that Battletech has had many owners over time and that means there has been so many cooks for the lore stew, thus what FASA set up 40 years ago have now no maybe no natural spot to fill in how the universe evolve as the current owners envision the IP 😊
I for one will never believe that comstar(/blakeists/the blessed order) have really died. Every time a dropship goes missing or some pirates seem too well trained and equipped and having some strange raids ill know for sure who to suspect behind it. The faction that built in and from the shadows will always be out there.
I love Com Star. They are like the GodFather pulling the strings behind the scenes with all the great houses squabbling with each other. It's maniacal and purpose driven and awesome.
Praised be Blake. ComStar is gone. But we are still here. On Canopus. Doing Battle Powder and watching girls in latex, because I saved my retirement funds in gold and parts instead of C-Bills. We'll be back. Maybe. One day. Ex-Acolyte Rho IV Nemamiah, over and out.
Good editorial piece. Honestly, the death of ComStar/WoB is one of the reasons my local meta is hesitant to move forward to the Dark Age and ilClan eras. We're still mainly stuck in the Clan Invasion & FedCom Civil War at latest. Like you said, it's not so much that ComStar DIED, it's that it died and didn't give folks anywhere to go. I think if they had ended up melded into the Republic of the Sphere, and the Republic survived and became the inheritors of the Blakist identity, that would have been fine. If ComGuard units had successor units in the Republic's armies that carried their battle honors, great. But now with the Republic dead & gone, what's left? Even as someone for whom ComStar is a 3rd tier favorite fashion, it just feels like an unexplainable gaping hole in the lore.
My bitterness doesn't just come from the fact that Comstar died. It was how it was killed; it came across as pissing on the faction. On top of that my first introduction to Battletech was the Mechassault game and the villain was The Word of Blake. And yes, its death did cause me to lose long term interest in the universe do to the fact I invested into this faction. Because of that I have a hard time justifying getting back into the universe, like why should I if they can just kill off any major faction at the drop of a hat. And now my only interaction with Battletech is you, Black Pants, and MW5.
They don't normally kill Major factions at a drop of the hat, and even when they die, death isn't entirely the end for most, as I've shown in the video, to be fair.
@@BigRed40TECH But that still makes the "absolute" death of the Blakest sub-Factions all the more bitter, especially when the out of universe reasoning boils down to "We got tired of writing them..."
I've been slowly catching up on post Civil War lore since I started getting back into Battletech. Like I knew the HPGs were all down, but I didn't know Comstar had been taken out until recently. It does seem kinda weird that there's nothing left at all. No ComGuards turning mercenary or something. No splinter group setting up an alliance with the Scorpion Empire.
To the Comstar fans: **Never give up in Leagues of Votann** Remember, the Squats were killed for almost a quarter of a century, but then they went back.
The big thing I can not understand, is why the authors and lore keepers go out of their way to make sure that the Blessed Order is completely dead. Why not leave a glimmer of Hope? NO, we can have that. The Order is dead and will stay dead!
Based on some offhand comments from CGL here and there, I think they have A) no current plans to bring back Blakism, and B) felt like they misled people with the Elements of Treason: Opportunity episode, and also felt bad about that. So they wanted to set the record straight so they didn't feel like they were baiting people.
Sorry to hear how hard this all was for you. In contrast, i have fondest memories of the time when ComStar was still around and i was in the very only ComStar chapter in the (very first) Mechforce within several hundred kilometers around. In case of doubt, i merely recount one of our table traditions: when doing attack rolls, the chapter leader always was the one to roll first, then going down along the side of the table. All rolled with the same dice cup and pair of dice. This made sure that when the initiative roll came up, the dice were as far away from the chapter leader as possible. Who then chanted out that he shall be handed the dice, so we one by one handed the dice forward, each chanting "here are the dice". When the chapter leader received the dice, he shook the cup and put it on the table. Before lifting it, he chanted "in Blakes name", to which all replied "in his name". Only then the initiative roll was to be revealed. It sure drove some of our opponents mad, but we and anybody watching had so much fun... :)
The only thing really difficult for me, was how Elements of Treason went down and just having to deal with tellikng people that were hyped at a return of the Blakists, that it wasn't going down. That was hard, ngl.
@@BigRed40TECH Yea. I formulated that badly. Sorry, english is not my native language. I simply wanted to cheer you up, telling you that i know plenty of old ComStar people, who are long past the problem, still fondly remember the old times and don't really feel troubled by what the writers are doing. So i hope you rather can get some joy from old ComStar and not be troubled by anything around it.
@@michaellehner3339 It's not so much that I'm troubled, its that Battletech is entering a great new entertaining age, and its leaving behind a lot of players from one subsection, which I think is unfortunate. Apparently, so does my audience, which is why they bribed me to make this opinion piece lol
@@BigRed40TECH I love Comstar and all of its quirkiness. I'm not a big fan of everything Dark Age and beyond and a lot of that is because of what happens to Comstar. That said, I also don't really see them as a faction one plays often. They never were a major player opting for the cloak and dagger approach, but they could have been so much more. Instead, we get click bait....er base.... Dark Age.
I don't see why you can't have ComStar Remnants as a minor faction come bank by hardcore believers who hid away during the Fall of ComStar and the rise of the Word of Blake. I feel it's very realistic, with small groups of ComStar personnel just disappearing during the upheavals.
I could see Constar as being a decentralized splinter faction in the Ilclan era that could reform when a charismatic leader unifies the remanent and brings new blood into the fold. Basically starting out as a mercenary like faction and ending up as a psudo-state like faction.
I think Comstar serves(served) many critical roles in the storytelling of Battletech. And while you’ve mentioned many of them I feel like you may have missed some too. Comstar had a unique role in setting as an umpire who put their thumb on the scale. They acted as a sort of insurance that your favorite faction who wouldn’t get dogpiled by the other houses or even the clans. And there’s some value in that. Here’s hoping they have the power to return in some way.
@@thestabbybrit4798 I would LOVE it if Clan Sea Fox started playing spy-games with everyone else. They've got almost all the pieces in place to start acting like Comstar, and they could easily form their own sort of ideology about how they're the ones who will save mankind.
Well said Big Red. Of the great houses, clans, periphery, and merc life, Comstar/Blakists was something distinct from all of that. It is baffling they decided to kill off that entire tree. To be replaced by the smartest best can do no wrong, can never fail Clan Sea Fox? Lame.
I'll be the last ComGuard hold out. My clanbuster King Crab and I will be in a nameless desert on a nameless planet waiting for ComStar to rise from the ashes 🙂.
As a war gaming table top game BT's factions have two main goals beyond interesting lore. 1st, provide an in universe excuse for absolutely any faction to beat the snot out of absolutely any other faction, and it's self. 2nd, and more importantly for BR40K's point, is to be something that people can get behind. Players can get get excited for a faction based on aesthetic, play style, values, or lore. Commstar provides a high tech, quality over quantity, religious character that is unique within BT. Even thought some other factions share many of these quality none do with the same favour. For example, Commstar's religion is about uplifting humanity. The religious traits shown by some Clans are more about domination of humanity. No faction in BT can fill the niche that Commstar does. Nor does Commstar have any place in being a major player BT. It's religious elements doesn't fit well with the Dynastic politics of the Great Houses. It's uplifting values would be seen as a weakness among the Clans. Commstar was at it's best when it was working in the shadows to nudge the universe towards it's own designs. Starting a war here, bring peace and stability there, and coming planet side with it's unassailable tech only when matters have gone too far beyond tolerable. Everything about Commstar fit that role perfectly. Even down to it's fall to fanaticism, and losing it's path to capitalism. Commstar can never return to it's past power, the mistrust and hate it has earned runs too deep. Growing in strength as a secretive power broker lurking in the shadows is the perfect fate for it's adherents. Those loyal to Commstar will never show their hand. Those that deal with Commstar will never know it's true intentions, or identity. Those that face off against Commstar will fear the bizarre and near alien forms of it's battlemechs. In a thousand tiny was Commstar will bend the path of history closer and closer to their chosen course.
C* was never about uplifting people, it was about burning the rest of civilization to the ground, just so that a group of hoarders could have it better than everyone else. To top it all off, the religion was just created by some Reddit atheist who regarded religion as programming for stupid people that he could use to make them follow his instructions long after he was dead.
Even I as a long term Kuritan, am interested in Comstar. I like them as the hidden faction. Always watching from the shadows. They should be out there waiting, watching and even meddling. I have come to the conclusion: - There is no Comstar - Comstar will find you like the Boogeyman. Always hidden, never real.
I’m just gonna say, Big Red, we as the Battletech community are blessed to have someone as passionate as you who can bring us these thought pieces that are so incredible. Thank you for your sheer awesomeness. May Liao be burnt into crispy toast, and may COMSTAR always be remembered as that phone company who kicked the clanners butts. Also, that MW5 footage! Was that the mech-commander mod? That was amazing stuff to watch! Bravo 👌🏻👍🏻
I love this video. You have totally described my hiatus from Battletech when they wrote ComStar off. The fact that they started nerfing ComStar to WoB actions so that we went from the veterans of Tukayyid to the Keystone Cops that just blunder from one loss to another was just deflating. I didn't start out ComGuard, I played Mercenary until my friends needed someone to play it. It grew on me and I became a dedicated ComStar player. I wasn't a toaster worshipper...more like an Inner Spheroid who bought into the "Saving the Inner Sphere" stance that ComStar espoused in the 3000's to attract more followers. The Schism was a great foil for players who were once brethren and now nemesis to each other. Great video. Thanks for talking about ComStar.
Given the plot hook of the 3 missing secret worlds we can continue fielding the Shadow Divisions for the Word of Blake. And as an OpFor or enemy it would make a large problem for a lot of people.
@@BigRed40TECH I believe the developers confirmed that the missing worlds and run away Shadow Divisions etc were left for the holdover Comstar/Word of Blake Players.
I don't even particularly like Comstar and I think that it is a shame that they're gone. I'm running a tabletop merc campaign set in 3025 with 7 players these days and have a great time dropping the occasional Comstar job in just to stir the pot a bit. The Focht direction for Comstar was natural to the story and even could be seen as a good thing, but it obviously robbed the faction of what made it interesting, that religious edge. Anyway, I miss them, it really is too bad that they don't have some kind of remnant in the ilClan era.
I have been a HUGE ComGuards fan most of my life. From my first reading of the Tukayyid battle in the books back in the 90s as a kid. Because the damn cable company won. The clans I had fallen in love with (Wolf at first, Coyote later) were humbled by the cable guy. And no other faction has really filled that gole since. Ever since the end of the Jihad era books I have yet to buy anything else. It is unfortunate, because BattleTech is my first love of table top gaming. Even my next most passionate love in the faction, Clan Coyote and its Scientist caste connections is essentially dead as well. So now I am left with no faction to fall in behind and love and cherish because will they too be killed off with no equivalent successor? But I still love BattleTech and if we ever game I'll just enjoy the lore and teach the game to the next generation.
Fantastic video as always, and helpful too, as a relatively new player to the game I was intending to start my collection with the Kickstarter and was thinking of painting them as ComStar. Probably still will, but it is nice to know that doing so will have some consequences.
Thanks for the excellent video, Big Red. When I was first getting into tabletop some 3 or so years ago now, Comstar was absolutely one of the factions on the table for me to paint up and run. I later went with my own Merc company, but there's always been a part of me that heard Blake's call. For them to be snuffed out in entirety, with nowhere for those players to turn to, feels tragic to me. Comstar was absolutely a release valve for people who wanted something other than The Houses or The Clans, so for it to just be turned off and dried out is ... well, it's weird. Especially given the nature of the faction, of their beliefs, and the prevalence of their teachings throughout the Inner Sphere, I can only hope Catalyst decides to about-face on it somewhere down the line.
Great video! I definitely feel the pain, not only for ComStar, but for factions like Retribution of Scyrah (which is now Elf Cryx), or the Protectorate of Menoth from Warmachine. It's a pity when for the narrative, factions die, particularly when they have so much more to offer narratively.
One of the lessons you learn early on from the more story driven RPGs, is that when the writers do something stupid you just ignore it. ComStar is necessary for the survival of Battletech, they are the last bastion of an advanced humanity protecting against a backslide into barbarism that the Houses and Clans want so much. Without the delusional and hypocritical insanity of ComStar, there's just no hope.
It's really odd to me that there's no Blakist/Comstar successor given that 315X is very clearly being set up as the new 3025/3062: A gigantic, messy free for all where everybody can carve out their own place.😊
my current force I'm building for il-clan is mercs that used to be some form of Comstar under the 85th division(as it's my tukayyid force) and they are just going under the name 'The White Lions'. and hearing the end bit of lore does make things more interesting for me. Sure Comstar is dead but heroes and villains are immortal. Confractus Lupus, Redi Ordinis
I've always liked comstar as a plot device, but I wish they had kept the comguard or at least some subset of them as true Star League remnants. Great video, always love your takes man.
I don't see the Comguards as being related very much to the Star League tbh, they really formed much later as a real thing. The Silver Shields were more the Comguard remnant, and that didn't last for long after the 1st Succession War.
Great video and even as a new player I can say ComStar is my favorite faction. While there are a bunch of others that I like, it was the ComGuards with their white mechs and the outstanding art on the Battle of Tukayyid sourcebook that solidified my interest in the lore.
Seeing the Clans without Comstar in the hooplah of the Inner Sphere boogaloo feels somewhat... lopsided; they were the two biggest remainders of the Star League that ultimately twisted into crooked mirror-images who considered themselves the true inheritors to the Star League's legacy. Each of these two overarching superfactions were good counterweights to each other and illustrated how diversely the remnants of the Star League diverged when separated and subjected to entirely different politically environmental influences.
We all long to comprehend the nature of our foundation. People sense the proximity of Comstar to the reason science fiction looks like this, so we are drawn to it intensely. Comstar makes the space empires make sense. Comstar carries a weight to it that enforces the strict consistent logic and scientific process that makes this fandom so incredibly, amazingly different. A lot of people, those who haven't spent years actually studying the history of science fiction at the college level like I have, don't grasp why this is. It's because Comstar is the Foundation. Isaac Asimov's THE Foundation. The only one there will ever be, so long as our species may retain his work. The Imperium was an idealistic, decaying, and then utterly fallen polity Asimov explicitly stole from the book "the Fall of the Roman Empire," who's story he was adapting, with one twist. "Because it was so obvious these social forces were colliding in hindsight, what if someone noticed?" That single sentence, which stopped instantly the 'teenager' (who's actual, real, mid-20th-century peasant family had no record of his own age, and were forced to abide by a scientific theory about it for the rest of their lives) while he was running from the brand-new pipe factory that had been repurposed to build torpedoes to make it to the class he was crashing (his society was not paying him to learn, it was paying him to build weapons). That single moment, which hung over him for the rest of his life, changed science fiction for the rest of foreseeable history, and he knew it the moment he had it. He wrote it into his story, as it doesn't matter who had the idea in his future science of 'psychohistory,' it only matters what the odds are that someone has that idea. If you like modern science fiction, or basically any science fiction since the 1950's, you probably owe something to that exact moment, and it is going to resonate with you, even if it's not for my reasons from my reading laid out above. The loss of Comstar, or a true successor to it, is such a symbolic loss that it has set a great mass of this fandom on fire, and given most of it even more reason to linger in the earliest age of this setting. Back when the influence was closer.
Personally, I've never had much emotional investment in Comstar, but I still think they're interesting. I don't think it would be lore-breaking or contrived to have them continue to exist in some form, even if they remained obscure and not very powerful. After all, it's a big galaxy out there and you can hide a lot of weird stuff in it. If a bunch of Blake worshipers wanted to set up a secret commune somewhere, they probably get away with it.
On the subject of factions that died in the lore and was never really a living part of the game, I always saw the Republic of the Sphere as the Terran Hegemony brought forward from the lore into the actual game.
I find it curious that one aspect of Comstar was its contribution to the stability of interstellar commerce in the universe of Battletech, glossed over in favour of its more intriguing shadowy & techno-religious elements. True that the C-bill was largely backed by the value of HPG services, now largely defunct on the Dark Age & Ilclan eras, but it was a central background element of economic exchange for - especially in the newest KS offering - mercenaries. I can't imagine mercs having to cram their limited cargo holds full of ammunition because that's the only stable commodity of exchange left to them.
Praise be Blake. I listened to this video while trimming up some 3d printed Celestials, I personally argue that in my own headcannon, the Word, the Comguard, aren't totally dead, some remnants remain and when I fight post-Blakist era armies that's my argument for my force. I don't expect a resurrection, hell at this point I don't even expect a cannon acknowledgement that a remnant exists, but until the last Blakist falls I will not lay down my metaphorical sword and accept the death of my faction. A beautiful video, and a huge thank you from me, even if this is, almost an epitaph to Comstar/Word. Blake Dominatus. Lupus Delenda Est.
Great piece. I like your editorials - we like hearing your personal stories, and you don't let them get in the way of your rational arguments. I was going to say that ComStar lost kinda their raison d'etre once the Inner Sphere recovered old technology and started to break free from ROM's attempts to keep the Inner Sphere down. They were terrifying in 3025. In 3039 they were still able to influence a major war. It took some creative writing to keep them relevant during the Clan Invasion, glorious as that was. They needed a new role after that and the Jihad was only good for a short-term burst. But you convinced me that it would've been worth finding them a new role after the Jihad - that their equipment and culture is unique and important to the setting. I personally see a lot of potential in the Third Star League set in 3250 hinted at by the recent TRO intro blurbs. In my dreams, that's Catalyst's big chance to make any big changes they feel are appropriate, but also to re-introduce us to old factions as they reappear during the Spartacus-style uprisings. While I'm dreaming, let's have the IlClan decide that a Star League-worshipping religion or state department is a useful tool for managing the Spheroid population. Maybe they run the schools, dunno. I think they could once again be mysterious and frightening institution in between the Inner Sphere and the Clans.
Given that Comstar is "my" faction, I just don't bother with anything after their destruction. I would happily dive into the later eras otherwise. I still read up on the eras past that point... I just don't play games in them.
my wife and I only got into Battletech a couple years ago and mostly just casually doing AS. Comcast is our favorite because its so different than the rest of the setting yet fits so well into it. ATT wizards are goofy but they make sense in the lore and contrast nicely against the hyper-militarism and eugenics factions running around. I miss them and their big crabs. Their non-existentce is why its hard for us to get attached to the new era
I recently got into the setting by listening to the current extent of the Tex Talk’s playlist. He hasn’t reached the end of Comstar in that play list yet, so I had no idea they were gone. I had pretty much landed on Comstar as my favorite faction. Religious fanatics about uplifting humanity with pay the Piper vibes? Let’s go. I was very excited to collect and paint them to go along side my Sister of Battle. Then I heard the faction is gone, apparently turbo killed, with literally no “off ramp” as you put it. It’s one thing to set a faction out of the center of a story, or to even heavily relegate them, but putting out an entire novel of hunting down every last member that didn’t turn defector is… rough. Feels personal. I don’t get how this super shadowy, massively wealthy cult could possibly have failed to set up hold out cells to manage the existing spy network. For an organization that spent so much time with limited territory, they couldn’t possibly have failed to consider the eventuality of facing one or two key defeats robbing them of all major holdings. Your idea of a Blessed Order fall back point doesn’t just make sense, it seems impossible to imagine that not happening. Idk, I might just build a Titanicus army instead. I have less than two hours played in MW5, so might just refund it. Getting in now feels like trying to start a squat army 13 years after they got squatted. Maybe Comstar will get the Leagues of Votann treatment 15 years from now, but I could have more fun doing other hobbies than hoping for that for the next decade+
When I first heard of this game it was still called 'battledroids'... When I first played it, there was no such thing as the internet or even the clans. I didn't like the feel of the 'great houses' so I played a mercenary group back then. When the clans came out, I read all the lore I could find and landed on a few choices that intrigued me for mech choice, overall lore, and battle tactics. That being Wolf/Coyote (in the beginning I considered them arms of the same animal), Hell's Horses, and Goliath Scorpions. I ended up main-ing the Wolves because my friend who also played was a Green Chicken... er, Jade Falcon, and so our honor duels would be awesome fun. I loved the MW PC games when they came out. Hell I was in some very well known clans and was a decent player thru the mw3 and mw4 era- until the servers died. I also played and loved MechCommander, MegaMek, and another game that I cannot remember the name of for the life of me. I was in the beta for MWO... but I don't think I've logged into that game in years. It just didn't feel like the BT I had grown to love. I bought MW5 for PS5 and it's kinda the same way. I hated the Jihad era, to be fair. I thought it was all to cliche', too sudden, and too 'on the nose' given the religious and geopolitical things going on in real life at the time. But I always held out a strange begrudging respect for ComStar and in particular, Focht and the ComGuards who figured out exactly how the clans would fight- and out-thought them rather than out-fought them. I hated reading ComStar had 'died'. It seemed like a part of what was the tapestry of BT/MW lore died then, too. Worse to me than the 'clicky-tech', worse than the 'unseen/reseen', worse than the clones of Thomas Marik, and worse than Pitting a Mackie against a Dire Wolf. I hope for those who took all that time to get those white paint jobs JUST RIGHT--- that something comes along you can feel happy with.
I have only just discovered your channel, but as a HUGE Comstar fan from the original era of the game, and who played through the Clan Invasion as it released. The fact that my favourite faction is gone (and my second favourite, the Wolf Wardens, are functionally gone) really does kill enthusiasm for the new eras. Plenty of other things do too (looking at you special ammo types) but the loss of my favourite faction(s) is the key. I simply don't want to play the new material.
If battletech was just lore and novels it would be fine to kill off a faction. But it is a game and one thing CGL says it is most important to have fun but how can you do that when you can’t play with your toys if your friends are playing in ilclan? There should have been a path for players to love into besides shelve your models. Also note I do not play comstar but I have had this happen to me in other game systems. Knowing that they are gone stinks explaining this to newer gamers.
40k had a few purges over the years that left lovingly crafted units of mine unusable in anything but an 'old-hammer' match up, that surprise surprise, practically no-one plays.
@@Musabre I feel you my friend I have lost game systems and friend because events like this. But I try to help those newer to systems I’m in to enjoy what we do have.
What made the perma-kill of Comstar egregious was the resurrection of Clans that had been officially destroyed in Canon events. I agree with Big Red that there should be consistency on both sides of the dead/reborn line.
Factions need to die. New factions need to be created. Otherwise the setting will stagnate. There is no drug quite as powerful as nostalgia, and while the old guys of the setting will huff it into perpetuity, it means there will be no new fans.
There's nothing that you couldn't play in 3152 that comstar uses. Their entire military is left over sldf stuff, which is the most common stuff you can find anywhere. You wouldn't even need to repaint them, the Arcturan Guards use the exact same color scheme.
Even after the blakist era it does feel weird, for a religious subculture with deep resources human and financial, that with 8-9 digits numbers of people who probably say "praise blake" when something good happens that the blakists are completely gone. Personally, comstar represents to me the worst kind of power which can be concentrated in exalted institutions whether from their prestigious links to old Terran hard power or their religion, but that's why they were such good villains. And every mustache which will now never be twirled while a body double tries to assassinate the 3rd cousin twice removed to a head of state is a sadness.
Just re-watched this and felt I had to say this is one of the reasons I never truly get into the history or factions in any depth. I love my Big Stompie Mechs and playing the game. But the repetitiveness and mishandling of the over time developers has huge missed opportunities and just like with Comstar now the familiar pattern of creating Red Herrings/McGuffins in stories to try to keep the hopes of fans of now dead factions is to say the least a HUGE missed marketing concern. Oh well, their loss. I hope CGL current pattern strays away from this but as this date like so many other game companies, I doubt it.
I didn't like Comstar but I recognise the dynamic the gave the game as a mutual opfor for clan and innersphere alike. They presented a techbase oligarchy that operated on domination through limitation of tech. All others are more social designs they worked at what was the "core" of the true conflict of mankind, the need to advance while also the need for conflict being self destructive.
I’m not saying that my mercenary company is made up of the survivors of a Blakeist cult or anything, but they do have an odd reverence for their machines. Just saying.
As a Bannson's Raiders player, I can relate. After Megan Tenclay kidnapped Bannson in the story, the player base was supposed to vote and decide the fate of Bannson's Raiders, but then the clix game died and the story was unresolved with Bannson's fate unknown, and it seems like no one wants to go back and give us closure.
I've grown to love the WoB. I would love to see more on them and the celestial battlemechs. I wasn't a fan when they were new and now love them. I find it pretty shitty that they are bringing back all those merc units like wolf's dragoons and gray death legion. But they can't keep comstar around? I really am not a fan of the ilclan era. Clan Wolf is the damn ultramarines of BT.
One way the Com Guards could stick around in the IlClan era when Mercenaries is taking place would be, much like the Eridani Light Horse did and other ex-SLDF groups after the fall of the league, is to turn to mercenary work, rebuilding themselves over time with some financial backing if nothing else from the ROM agents that had infiltrated noble houses, and when the inevitable warring states era they seem keen to set up with how all the factions are breaking up or preparing to break up happens, they could carve out their own minor holdings and defend it from outsiders, a second blessed order. Also, everything was Katherine's fault.
My personal opinion, which might not matter, is that it doesn't matter what official lore says when you understand the official lores history. Most of the stories are about generals, national leaders, and people that become such. But their are thousands of inhabited star systems in the innersphere and trillions of people. In 3025 their were mercenaries that traced their lineage to the Terran Hegemony and the SLDF. Mechs that were used for hundreds of years. Outside the inner sphere their are periphery states and countless other star systems with inhabitable worlds. Unless you can guarantee every Comstar/WOB/Blessed Order loyal human and cyborg was killed, that no jumpships went missing, that every member was accounted for, then they can show up in one form or another. They developed a lot of tech that a lot of people would be interested and will to hide people on many worlds to get. Just as an example: The Magistracy of Canopus has a history of biological and cybernetic modification. By 3150 it's about a century since the clan invasion and both the Wolf's Dragoons and Comstar opened up a little to outsiders to help all against the external threat. There was a group of people on Luna and the belt in the Sol System even better than the Canners at biogenetic modifications. The Wolf Empire doesn't have the manpower to control everything in the Sol System but they are probably making things very difficult for those that don't fit in the clan ways of doing things. Combined with a century to capture and examine clan elemental, mechwarrior and aerospace pilot genomes. It really wouldn't surprise me if the Canopans start fielding units using WOB cybernetics, Comstar electronics and advanced bioengineering technology. How long would it take for others to find out about such augmented MIM agents or since the Magistracy isn't very aggressive that the have thing like quadruped Battlearmor for Clydesdale sized Centaurs. Lots of rules for different tech at different Eras, but also rules for making your own thing anywhere along the time lines. Are certain things going to require consent from the person on the other side of the table? Yes, but anachronistic tech can be explained a lot of ways.
Comstar having no successor whether a major or minor faction is kind of dumb, they were literally everywhere including the deep periphery had more money than god, and were religious fanatics, yet there is no one left who has access to there stuff and no one who still follows the creed?????
The absorption by the Republic of the Sphere always felt like a dam sham. Giving the RoS more intelligence pull and making them more white hats. ComStar should have been kept as a unique faction.
Comstar need not be gone. That said, i would not give up on the setting simply because my favorite faction was destroyed. I enjoy the fluid nature of the setting and i think that were it as static as some wish it to be (3025-3062 only), the setting would miss a trick so to speak. Also, my favorite NFL team is the Rams. If i bought a stadium in Little Rock they would be the Arkansas Rams. Finally, treating Battletech like 40k seems wrong to me. I dont agree with all of your conclusions but i see the effort you put in and i gotta respect that. Keep it up.
I think one good way to handle Com Star in the new era is like the Imperial remnants in the old EU. Have different factions of Com Star each believing that their way is the correct one and have some infighting to see who's view is right. And maybe have some central figures arise and bring the shattered bits together.
Peace of Blake be with you all. The descendants of the 49th Shadow Division still hold the light of manking in their hearts and deeds. -Shagan Khaan Pezhetairoi of Eleusis Mercenary Company
I see Blakism making a shadow resurgence. Will it be the future Space Phone company in the future? Probably not. Nor should they. There are so many ways you can still have Blakist in the setting in positions of power, but not in the neutral position it once was.
Awesome video with great points. And I hope the blessed order survived in some form. I’m waiting for clan Nova Cats revival. I want them to melt the Combine forces with all those medium lasers on the Nova.
I don't care if I can't play as Com Guards, I can always play as Mercenary Com Guard larpers in the Illclan! Nobody is going to check if my pilots are actually descendants of Com Guards and paint is cheap.
I cannot relate to the ComStar fans, but I can imagine how I would feel if GW told me that the Thousand Sons were entirely deleted from the narrative. Or if Catalyst told me the Combine was over.
A big information superpower subtly influencing things is awesome. I never felt comstar was a convenient excuse for sly things happening, but instead usually well executed, mysterious and interesting background figure. I say background because thats their intention.
My introduction to Battletech was Tex's video on Tukayyid and though clearly a biased account really sold the Comguard to me as a faction. So when I started reading the lore and found out they and their successors were gone I was very dejected and basically lost interest in the game for a couple years. Now I'm giving it a go again but am struggling to find a faction that appeals to me as much as the Blakests did
I think that Comstar/Word of Blake was the center of SO many plots, for so long, the fact that they are gone does add realism to the Universe. The Smoke Jaguar Clan was Brutal, but they pale in comparison to what Word of Blake did to the inner sphere. Total eradication of the sect seems appropriate. When the Republic of the Sphere arrived it made sense that remainder of Comstar joined them. Having the Republic of the Sphere and Comstar would not have made much sense. Comstar failed and was replaced by the Republic. I believe one of the best elements of the Battletech Universe is you can play in any area now. House Davion and Mercenaries have always been my favorite factions. The Gray Death Legion was always my favorite “McGuyver” unit. The Black Widow Company, before anyone had even heard of the Clans. I firmly believe that like a Phoenix Comstar will rise again in a new form. But it had to be NEW and OLD. NOT, The Second Exodus…ComClans!
@@BigRed40TECH I get it. I never knew that many people felt that strongly about Comstar, so you have educated me on that front. When I played the most, no one played Comstar, because you really couldn’t. They were just Machiavelli in all the main story novels. We had the Comstar Sourcebook, lots of my MW 2nd edition villains were born from that book. I distinctly remember when Tukayyid came out no one could find it. Even when we did finally get a copy I had to run the ComGuard mechs as my group all wanted to paste me as the Smoke Jaguars or Wolf. Def no disrespect intended to the displaced Comstar fans.
@@danielgranda896 I was kinda stunned by the volume of support they get, it's really significant. It's pretty constant on the channel to the point where I had to bar their content from lore-videos for a while as that's all people voted for. Just even looking at what people are painting, Comguards are super-common when you look around. It's kinda wild.
I think Catalyst have to be aware of the continued popularity of the faction. I wonder how their level 2 box sets have sold? Seems strange to sell them so early in the new series with them relegated them to a "historic" setting (although obviously most of the minis have variants that aren't Comstar). For that matter, there's an interview with Randall Bills by The Boardgame Kaptain at Adepticon, where Randall said one of the yet unscheduled series of mechs he'd most like to do was the Celestials (although he didn't seem to think it'd be welcomed by fans). I have Comstar forces I play with myself (I mostly don't play past the Fedcom Civil War anyway), the only thing I don't like about the faction is that white is a bastard to paint well.
Their self destructive tendencies have stayed true throughout the franchise in such a way that I unironically liked them as a tot, edgedly like them as a teen, and now ruefully love the life lessons and repercussions being kind of shit to everyone brings a individual, community, society, etc. It's a shame the faction is gone, because that level of self importance and "excellency" added a social parameter to the franchise that I quite enjoyed.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 89 | คู่เอก "ยอดไอคิว vs คิริลล์"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z3vYkHJ_5Ig/mqdefault.jpg)
It was a great editorial piece. Spoken from the heart like a true fan. 👍 I don't think it would hurt the Ilkhanate storyline to have a Blakist/Comstar remnant force in existence somewhere picking up the pieces.
Thanks, I always hate doing these kinds of pieces. lol
@@BigRed40TECH Honest, positive comments will get positive attention from the in-house creators. I've been A fiery, passionate fanboy in the past too. But it's a proverb that one catches more flies with honey than vinegar. Being a great whale might help too lol. 🙂
@@BigRed40TECH just for the lam mech it would be 100% worth it to me plus later the line the celestial TY FOR TRYING ...
@@observationsfromthebunker9639 I think the Devs by and large are good people, doing what they can to give us a good story atm, and there is a lot of be excited for. The streaming members more or less asked me to write this, which are my feelings to be clear, but I don't usually like doing editorial pieces tbh.
@@jessicalacasse6205 LAMs are cancer. lol
You can’t give a faction something as big as Tukkayid, and then erase them without consequences. A solid video essay, sir.
Empires fall, others rise. But it doesnt mean that ComStar cant be utilized in remnant roles for own campaigns
My thoughts exactly
A counter point.
How many generals, platoons, leaders and soldiers have performed *amazing* feats of tactics or military might throughout history? How many of those groups or individuals are remembered in any capacity other than historical?
The Spartans pulled off a feat unheard of before or since but how many militaries utilize any of their tactics since?
War is a ever shifting beast and militaries large and small, advanced and poor get left behind regardless of their victories or prowess.
@sinjin8576 well the idea of holding a chokepoint against a stronger force has held up long after the Spartans, so in a way there's that tradition.
i dont know what more you wanted out of a death of comestar. they nuked multiple worlds of great importance
Thing is that Comstar always posed a unique threat within BT.
Everying else, from the Succession Wars to the Clan Invasion are just conventional military conflicts.
Comstar/WoB were beyond just being a conventional military threat, they were an information based superpower. Loosing them with nothing remotely like it to take it's place cheapens the setting, it narrows everything down to just another military threat without having to wonder in the back of you mind if your your serving your own purposes or theirs.
The death of ComStar has really hurt even as someone who doesn't play them much if at all. They felt like an amazing and well fleshed out faction and even had their own unique tech, but now to be relegated to the dustbin...
Yea dude :\
It is odd that they have invested so much effort into creating a major faction just to destroy it, would be like taking out one of the noble houses just dont make any sense.
@@MrSigmatico i can understand your point, but the issue is that Battletech has had many owners over time and that means there has been so many cooks for the lore stew, thus what FASA set up 40 years ago have now no maybe no natural spot to fill in how the universe evolve as the current owners envision the IP 😊
@@HimmelGanger Yeah, wasn't it one of the new owners that just said speed the timeline up to create a new era, and so they wipped out comstar.
I for one will never believe that comstar(/blakeists/the blessed order) have really died. Every time a dropship goes missing or some pirates seem too well trained and equipped and having some strange raids ill know for sure who to suspect behind it. The faction that built in and from the shadows will always be out there.
Peace of Blake be with you, brother.
I love Com Star. They are like the GodFather pulling the strings behind the scenes with all the great houses squabbling with each other. It's maniacal and purpose driven and awesome.
Praised be Blake. ComStar is gone. But we are still here. On Canopus. Doing Battle Powder and watching girls in latex, because I saved my retirement funds in gold and parts instead of C-Bills. We'll be back. Maybe. One day. Ex-Acolyte Rho IV Nemamiah, over and out.
Girls in latex is very vanilla for Canopus.
So now everyone who loved them is going to make an "ex comstar" Lance XD
Your location has been noted. Dispatching a retirement team to your geographical region. Please enjoy your severance package.
Good editorial piece. Honestly, the death of ComStar/WoB is one of the reasons my local meta is hesitant to move forward to the Dark Age and ilClan eras. We're still mainly stuck in the Clan Invasion & FedCom Civil War at latest. Like you said, it's not so much that ComStar DIED, it's that it died and didn't give folks anywhere to go. I think if they had ended up melded into the Republic of the Sphere, and the Republic survived and became the inheritors of the Blakist identity, that would have been fine. If ComGuard units had successor units in the Republic's armies that carried their battle honors, great. But now with the Republic dead & gone, what's left?
Even as someone for whom ComStar is a 3rd tier favorite fashion, it just feels like an unexplainable gaping hole in the lore.
My bitterness doesn't just come from the fact that Comstar died. It was how it was killed; it came across as pissing on the faction. On top of that my first introduction to Battletech was the Mechassault game and the villain was The Word of Blake. And yes, its death did cause me to lose long term interest in the universe do to the fact I invested into this faction. Because of that I have a hard time justifying getting back into the universe, like why should I if they can just kill off any major faction at the drop of a hat. And now my only interaction with Battletech is you, Black Pants, and MW5.
They don't normally kill Major factions at a drop of the hat, and even when they die, death isn't entirely the end for most, as I've shown in the video, to be fair.
@@BigRed40TECH I know, Im still sad about it.
@@BigRed40TECH But that still makes the "absolute" death of the Blakest sub-Factions all the more bitter, especially when the out of universe reasoning boils down to "We got tired of writing them..."
I've been slowly catching up on post Civil War lore since I started getting back into Battletech. Like I knew the HPGs were all down, but I didn't know Comstar had been taken out until recently.
It does seem kinda weird that there's nothing left at all. No ComGuards turning mercenary or something. No splinter group setting up an alliance with the Scorpion Empire.
ComGuards were integrated into the Republic of the Sphere military. Some tried to bring back a return but were crushed by the RotS on Epsilon Eridani.
To the Comstar fans:
**Never give up in Leagues of Votann**
Remember, the Squats were killed for almost a quarter of a century, but then they went back.
The big thing I can not understand, is why the authors and lore keepers go out of their way to make sure that the Blessed Order is completely dead.
Why not leave a glimmer of Hope?
NO, we can have that. The Order is dead and will stay dead!
I don't have any info on that, sadly.
Based on some offhand comments from CGL here and there, I think they have A) no current plans to bring back Blakism, and B) felt like they misled people with the Elements of Treason: Opportunity episode, and also felt bad about that. So they wanted to set the record straight so they didn't feel like they were baiting people.
Sorry to hear how hard this all was for you.
In contrast, i have fondest memories of the time when ComStar was still around and i was in the very only ComStar chapter in the (very first) Mechforce within several hundred kilometers around.
In case of doubt, i merely recount one of our table traditions: when doing attack rolls, the chapter leader always was the one to roll first, then going down along the side of the table. All rolled with the same dice cup and pair of dice. This made sure that when the initiative roll came up, the dice were as far away from the chapter leader as possible. Who then chanted out that he shall be handed the dice, so we one by one handed the dice forward, each chanting "here are the dice". When the chapter leader received the dice, he shook the cup and put it on the table. Before lifting it, he chanted "in Blakes name", to which all replied "in his name". Only then the initiative roll was to be revealed.
It sure drove some of our opponents mad, but we and anybody watching had so much fun... :)
The only thing really difficult for me, was how Elements of Treason went down and just having to deal with tellikng people that were hyped at a return of the Blakists, that it wasn't going down. That was hard, ngl.
@@BigRed40TECH Yea. I formulated that badly. Sorry, english is not my native language. I simply wanted to cheer you up, telling you that i know plenty of old ComStar people, who are long past the problem, still fondly remember the old times and don't really feel troubled by what the writers are doing.
So i hope you rather can get some joy from old ComStar and not be troubled by anything around it.
@@michaellehner3339 It's not so much that I'm troubled, its that Battletech is entering a great new entertaining age, and its leaving behind a lot of players from one subsection, which I think is unfortunate. Apparently, so does my audience, which is why they bribed me to make this opinion piece lol
Oooooh it's about Comstar! I like it already, Blake be praised!
I'd not call this video as a happy go lucky video.
It's not about Comstar itself in a lot of ways, but the abandonment of its players. :(
@@BigRed40TECH I love Comstar and all of its quirkiness. I'm not a big fan of everything Dark Age and beyond and a lot of that is because of what happens to Comstar. That said, I also don't really see them as a faction one plays often. They never were a major player opting for the cloak and dagger approach, but they could have been so much more. Instead, we get click bait....er base.... Dark Age.
This is addressed in the video.
I don't see why you can't have ComStar Remnants as a minor faction come bank by hardcore believers who hid away during the Fall of ComStar and the rise of the Word of Blake. I feel it's very realistic, with small groups of ComStar personnel just disappearing during the upheavals.
I could see Constar as being a decentralized splinter faction in the Ilclan era that could reform when a charismatic leader unifies the remanent and brings new blood into the fold. Basically starting out as a mercenary like faction and ending up as a psudo-state like faction.
Blake lives in death... and Comstar lives in our hearts.
I think Comstar serves(served) many critical roles in the storytelling of Battletech. And while you’ve mentioned many of them I feel like you may have missed some too.
Comstar had a unique role in setting as an umpire who put their thumb on the scale. They acted as a sort of insurance that your favorite faction who wouldn’t get dogpiled by the other houses or even the clans. And there’s some value in that.
Here’s hoping they have the power to return in some way.
This entirely. I get that Clan Sea Fox sort of plays this role, but they really lack the "screwing about in the shadows" aspect.
@@thestabbybrit4798 I would LOVE it if Clan Sea Fox started playing spy-games with everyone else. They've got almost all the pieces in place to start acting like Comstar, and they could easily form their own sort of ideology about how they're the ones who will save mankind.
@@Kpiozero Seconding this as being an awesome idea.
Well said Big Red. Of the great houses, clans, periphery, and merc life, Comstar/Blakists was something distinct from all of that. It is baffling they decided to kill off that entire tree.
To be replaced by the smartest best can do no wrong, can never fail Clan Sea Fox? Lame.
When I see the Comstar logo, I hear it to the tune of the Sega logo .... "Coommmm-Staaar". Gets me every time.
I'll be the last ComGuard hold out. My clanbuster King Crab and I will be in a nameless desert on a nameless planet waiting for ComStar to rise from the ashes 🙂.
My black knight waits as well brother, may we one day fight together again in the name of Blake.
@alpharius2omegaboogaloo384 oh cool, a comment from a year ago comment 😎. Praise Blake 🙂.
Now I want to watch this video again.
As a war gaming table top game BT's factions have two main goals beyond interesting lore. 1st, provide an in universe excuse for absolutely any faction to beat the snot out of absolutely any other faction, and it's self. 2nd, and more importantly for BR40K's point, is to be something that people can get behind.
Players can get get excited for a faction based on aesthetic, play style, values, or lore. Commstar provides a high tech, quality over quantity, religious character that is unique within BT. Even thought some other factions share many of these quality none do with the same favour. For example, Commstar's religion is about uplifting humanity. The religious traits shown by some Clans are more about domination of humanity.
No faction in BT can fill the niche that Commstar does. Nor does Commstar have any place in being a major player BT. It's religious elements doesn't fit well with the Dynastic politics of the Great Houses. It's uplifting values would be seen as a weakness among the Clans.
Commstar was at it's best when it was working in the shadows to nudge the universe towards it's own designs. Starting a war here, bring peace and stability there, and coming planet side with it's unassailable tech only when matters have gone too far beyond tolerable.
Everything about Commstar fit that role perfectly. Even down to it's fall to fanaticism, and losing it's path to capitalism. Commstar can never return to it's past power, the mistrust and hate it has earned runs too deep. Growing in strength as a secretive power broker lurking in the shadows is the perfect fate for it's adherents. Those loyal to Commstar will never show their hand. Those that deal with Commstar will never know it's true intentions, or identity. Those that face off against Commstar will fear the bizarre and near alien forms of it's battlemechs. In a thousand tiny was Commstar will bend the path of history closer and closer to their chosen course.
C* was never about uplifting people, it was about burning the rest of civilization to the ground, just so that a group of hoarders could have it better than everyone else. To top it all off, the religion was just created by some Reddit atheist who regarded religion as programming for stupid people that he could use to make them follow his instructions long after he was dead.
If Catalyst brings back the Knights of Inner Sphere using the remnants of the Knights of the Republic, I'm going to raise hell. 😂
But what if they made their uniform just an addias tracksuit? Would that work?
@BigRed40k Brit posers in tracksuits provide a very different picture.
Imagine these super-british people all trying to pretend like they belong. It'd be fantastic.
They spit out the Vodka when they sip it. XD
@@BigRed40TECH yes that will work 😀!
Interesting...
Even I as a long term Kuritan, am interested in Comstar. I like them as the hidden faction. Always watching from the shadows. They should be out there waiting, watching and even meddling. I have come to the conclusion:
- There is no Comstar
- Comstar will find you like the Boogeyman. Always hidden, never real.
Comstar to me was always one of the most iconic and interesting factions in battletech its sad to see it go...
Loved this video. Comstar is a faction ive always loved and you have put into words much of what many of their fans feel. Keep up the great work.
People asked me to do it XD
I’m just gonna say, Big Red, we as the Battletech community are blessed to have someone as passionate as you who can bring us these thought pieces that are so incredible. Thank you for your sheer awesomeness. May Liao be burnt into crispy toast, and may COMSTAR always be remembered as that phone company who kicked the clanners butts.
Also, that MW5 footage! Was that the mech-commander mod? That was amazing stuff to watch! Bravo 👌🏻👍🏻
Just MW5, just using the free camera mode.
Great video as always. Thank you for the coverage of this topic despite the non too hopeful words at adepticon.
I love this video. You have totally described my hiatus from Battletech when they wrote ComStar off. The fact that they started nerfing ComStar to WoB actions so that we went from the veterans of Tukayyid to the Keystone Cops that just blunder from one loss to another was just deflating. I didn't start out ComGuard, I played Mercenary until my friends needed someone to play it. It grew on me and I became a dedicated ComStar player. I wasn't a toaster worshipper...more like an Inner Spheroid who bought into the "Saving the Inner Sphere" stance that ComStar espoused in the 3000's to attract more followers. The Schism was a great foil for players who were once brethren and now nemesis to each other. Great video. Thanks for talking about ComStar.
Excellent if rather sombre topic. Thanks for making it, it was really interesting.
Given the plot hook of the 3 missing secret worlds we can continue fielding the Shadow Divisions for the Word of Blake. And as an OpFor or enemy it would make a large problem for a lot of people.
One of those hidden worlds is dead already btw. lol
@@BigRed40TECH I like the base hidden inside the hyperspace side of a Sun.
@@BigRed40TECH I believe the developers confirmed that the missing worlds and run away Shadow Divisions etc were left for the holdover Comstar/Word of Blake Players.
I don't even particularly like Comstar and I think that it is a shame that they're gone. I'm running a tabletop merc campaign set in 3025 with 7 players these days and have a great time dropping the occasional Comstar job in just to stir the pot a bit.
The Focht direction for Comstar was natural to the story and even could be seen as a good thing, but it obviously robbed the faction of what made it interesting, that religious edge. Anyway, I miss them, it really is too bad that they don't have some kind of remnant in the ilClan era.
I voted no originally, but I think you've convinced me to switch. Good video!
I just try to do my best to argue what's best to players at the end of the day. :)
I’m fairly new to Battletech, Big Red really helped me get into it, and even I feel the the IlClan era SORELY misses some form of Comstar.
I do now understand much better what you mean Red. Thanks for this Vid and the explaining tone of it
I have been a HUGE ComGuards fan most of my life. From my first reading of the Tukayyid battle in the books back in the 90s as a kid. Because the damn cable company won.
The clans I had fallen in love with (Wolf at first, Coyote later) were humbled by the cable guy. And no other faction has really filled that gole since. Ever since the end of the Jihad era books I have yet to buy anything else. It is unfortunate, because BattleTech is my first love of table top gaming.
Even my next most passionate love in the faction, Clan Coyote and its Scientist caste connections is essentially dead as well. So now I am left with no faction to fall in behind and love and cherish because will they too be killed off with no equivalent successor?
But I still love BattleTech and if we ever game I'll just enjoy the lore and teach the game to the next generation.
Fantastic video as always, and helpful too, as a relatively new player to the game I was intending to start my collection with the Kickstarter and was thinking of painting them as ComStar. Probably still will, but it is nice to know that doing so will have some consequences.
In Tuarian Concordat culture, telling ppl to "just play other factions/eras" is considered 'a dick move.'
100%
Thanks for the excellent video, Big Red. When I was first getting into tabletop some 3 or so years ago now, Comstar was absolutely one of the factions on the table for me to paint up and run. I later went with my own Merc company, but there's always been a part of me that heard Blake's call. For them to be snuffed out in entirety, with nowhere for those players to turn to, feels tragic to me. Comstar was absolutely a release valve for people who wanted something other than The Houses or The Clans, so for it to just be turned off and dried out is ... well, it's weird. Especially given the nature of the faction, of their beliefs, and the prevalence of their teachings throughout the Inner Sphere, I can only hope Catalyst decides to about-face on it somewhere down the line.
Great video!
I definitely feel the pain, not only for ComStar, but for factions like Retribution of Scyrah (which is now Elf Cryx), or the Protectorate of Menoth from Warmachine. It's a pity when for the narrative, factions die, particularly when they have so much more to offer narratively.
And it makes less sense, feeling more like author fiat than an organic development within the narrative
One of the lessons you learn early on from the more story driven RPGs, is that when the writers do something stupid you just ignore it. ComStar is necessary for the survival of Battletech, they are the last bastion of an advanced humanity protecting against a backslide into barbarism that the Houses and Clans want so much. Without the delusional and hypocritical insanity of ComStar, there's just no hope.
It's really odd to me that there's no Blakist/Comstar successor given that 315X is very clearly being set up as the new 3025/3062: A gigantic, messy free for all where everybody can carve out their own place.😊
my current force I'm building for il-clan is mercs that used to be some form of Comstar under the 85th division(as it's my tukayyid force) and they are just going under the name 'The White Lions'. and hearing the end bit of lore does make things more interesting for me. Sure Comstar is dead but heroes and villains are immortal.
Confractus Lupus,
Redi Ordinis
Thank you all the work you do.
I've always liked comstar as a plot device, but I wish they had kept the comguard or at least some subset of them as true Star League remnants. Great video, always love your takes man.
I don't see the Comguards as being related very much to the Star League tbh, they really formed much later as a real thing. The Silver Shields were more the Comguard remnant, and that didn't last for long after the 1st Succession War.
Great video and even as a new player I can say ComStar is my favorite faction. While there are a bunch of others that I like, it was the ComGuards with their white mechs and the outstanding art on the Battle of Tukayyid sourcebook that solidified my interest in the lore.
Seeing the Clans without Comstar in the hooplah of the Inner Sphere boogaloo feels somewhat... lopsided; they were the two biggest remainders of the Star League that ultimately twisted into crooked mirror-images who considered themselves the true inheritors to the Star League's legacy. Each of these two overarching superfactions were good counterweights to each other and illustrated how diversely the remnants of the Star League diverged when separated and subjected to entirely different politically environmental influences.
Really appreciate you giving us this video
We all long to comprehend the nature of our foundation. People sense the proximity of Comstar to the reason science fiction looks like this, so we are drawn to it intensely. Comstar makes the space empires make sense. Comstar carries a weight to it that enforces the strict consistent logic and scientific process that makes this fandom so incredibly, amazingly different. A lot of people, those who haven't spent years actually studying the history of science fiction at the college level like I have, don't grasp why this is.
It's because Comstar is the Foundation. Isaac Asimov's THE Foundation. The only one there will ever be, so long as our species may retain his work. The Imperium was an idealistic, decaying, and then utterly fallen polity Asimov explicitly stole from the book "the Fall of the Roman Empire," who's story he was adapting, with one twist. "Because it was so obvious these social forces were colliding in hindsight, what if someone noticed?" That single sentence, which stopped instantly the 'teenager' (who's actual, real, mid-20th-century peasant family had no record of his own age, and were forced to abide by a scientific theory about it for the rest of their lives) while he was running from the brand-new pipe factory that had been repurposed to build torpedoes to make it to the class he was crashing (his society was not paying him to learn, it was paying him to build weapons).
That single moment, which hung over him for the rest of his life, changed science fiction for the rest of foreseeable history, and he knew it the moment he had it. He wrote it into his story, as it doesn't matter who had the idea in his future science of 'psychohistory,' it only matters what the odds are that someone has that idea. If you like modern science fiction, or basically any science fiction since the 1950's, you probably owe something to that exact moment, and it is going to resonate with you, even if it's not for my reasons from my reading laid out above.
The loss of Comstar, or a true successor to it, is such a symbolic loss that it has set a great mass of this fandom on fire, and given most of it even more reason to linger in the earliest age of this setting. Back when the influence was closer.
Personally, I've never had much emotional investment in Comstar, but I still think they're interesting. I don't think it would be lore-breaking or contrived to have them continue to exist in some form, even if they remained obscure and not very powerful. After all, it's a big galaxy out there and you can hide a lot of weird stuff in it. If a bunch of Blake worshipers wanted to set up a secret commune somewhere, they probably get away with it.
On the subject of factions that died in the lore and was never really a living part of the game, I always saw the Republic of the Sphere as the Terran Hegemony brought forward from the lore into the actual game.
How much Wolf could Clan Wolf Wolf if Clan Wolf could Wolf Wolves
I find it curious that one aspect of Comstar was its contribution to the stability of interstellar commerce in the universe of Battletech, glossed over in favour of its more intriguing shadowy & techno-religious elements. True that the C-bill was largely backed by the value of HPG services, now largely defunct on the Dark Age & Ilclan eras, but it was a central background element of economic exchange for - especially in the newest KS offering - mercenaries.
I can't imagine mercs having to cram their limited cargo holds full of ammunition because that's the only stable commodity of exchange left to them.
And in researching a response to this I discovered how Blakes Heart went out. Damn Regullans. Another possibility nuked.
Praise be Blake.
I listened to this video while trimming up some 3d printed Celestials, I personally argue that in my own headcannon, the Word, the Comguard, aren't totally dead, some remnants remain and when I fight post-Blakist era armies that's my argument for my force. I don't expect a resurrection, hell at this point I don't even expect a cannon acknowledgement that a remnant exists, but until the last Blakist falls I will not lay down my metaphorical sword and accept the death of my faction.
A beautiful video, and a huge thank you from me, even if this is, almost an epitaph to Comstar/Word.
Blake Dominatus.
Lupus Delenda Est.
Great piece. I like your editorials - we like hearing your personal stories, and you don't let them get in the way of your rational arguments.
I was going to say that ComStar lost kinda their raison d'etre once the Inner Sphere recovered old technology and started to break free from ROM's attempts to keep the Inner Sphere down. They were terrifying in 3025. In 3039 they were still able to influence a major war. It took some creative writing to keep them relevant during the Clan Invasion, glorious as that was. They needed a new role after that and the Jihad was only good for a short-term burst.
But you convinced me that it would've been worth finding them a new role after the Jihad - that their equipment and culture is unique and important to the setting.
I personally see a lot of potential in the Third Star League set in 3250 hinted at by the recent TRO intro blurbs. In my dreams, that's Catalyst's big chance to make any big changes they feel are appropriate, but also to re-introduce us to old factions as they reappear during the Spartacus-style uprisings. While I'm dreaming, let's have the IlClan decide that a Star League-worshipping religion or state department is a useful tool for managing the Spheroid population. Maybe they run the schools, dunno. I think they could once again be mysterious and frightening institution in between the Inner Sphere and the Clans.
Given that Comstar is "my" faction, I just don't bother with anything after their destruction. I would happily dive into the later eras otherwise. I still read up on the eras past that point... I just don't play games in them.
my wife and I only got into Battletech a couple years ago and mostly just casually doing AS. Comcast is our favorite because its so different than the rest of the setting yet fits so well into it. ATT wizards are goofy but they make sense in the lore and contrast nicely against the hyper-militarism and eugenics factions running around. I miss them and their big crabs. Their non-existentce is why its hard for us to get attached to the new era
I recently got into the setting by listening to the current extent of the Tex Talk’s playlist.
He hasn’t reached the end of Comstar in that play list yet, so I had no idea they were gone.
I had pretty much landed on Comstar as my favorite faction. Religious fanatics about uplifting humanity with pay the Piper vibes? Let’s go. I was very excited to collect and paint them to go along side my Sister of Battle.
Then I heard the faction is gone, apparently turbo killed, with literally no “off ramp” as you put it.
It’s one thing to set a faction out of the center of a story, or to even heavily relegate them, but putting out an entire novel of hunting down every last member that didn’t turn defector is… rough. Feels personal.
I don’t get how this super shadowy, massively wealthy cult could possibly have failed to set up hold out cells to manage the existing spy network. For an organization that spent so much time with limited territory, they couldn’t possibly have failed to consider the eventuality of facing one or two key defeats robbing them of all major holdings.
Your idea of a Blessed Order fall back point doesn’t just make sense, it seems impossible to imagine that not happening.
Idk, I might just build a Titanicus army instead. I have less than two hours played in MW5, so might just refund it. Getting in now feels like trying to start a squat army 13 years after they got squatted.
Maybe Comstar will get the Leagues of Votann treatment 15 years from now, but I could have more fun doing other hobbies than hoping for that for the next decade+
:(
When I first heard of this game it was still called 'battledroids'... When I first played it, there was no such thing as the internet or even the clans. I didn't like the feel of the 'great houses' so I played a mercenary group back then. When the clans came out, I read all the lore I could find and landed on a few choices that intrigued me for mech choice, overall lore, and battle tactics. That being Wolf/Coyote (in the beginning I considered them arms of the same animal), Hell's Horses, and Goliath Scorpions. I ended up main-ing the Wolves because my friend who also played was a Green Chicken... er, Jade Falcon, and so our honor duels would be awesome fun.
I loved the MW PC games when they came out. Hell I was in some very well known clans and was a decent player thru the mw3 and mw4 era- until the servers died. I also played and loved MechCommander, MegaMek, and another game that I cannot remember the name of for the life of me. I was in the beta for MWO... but I don't think I've logged into that game in years. It just didn't feel like the BT I had grown to love. I bought MW5 for PS5 and it's kinda the same way.
I hated the Jihad era, to be fair. I thought it was all to cliche', too sudden, and too 'on the nose' given the religious and geopolitical things going on in real life at the time. But I always held out a strange begrudging respect for ComStar and in particular, Focht and the ComGuards who figured out exactly how the clans would fight- and out-thought them rather than out-fought them.
I hated reading ComStar had 'died'. It seemed like a part of what was the tapestry of BT/MW lore died then, too. Worse to me than the 'clicky-tech', worse than the 'unseen/reseen', worse than the clones of Thomas Marik, and worse than Pitting a Mackie against a Dire Wolf.
I hope for those who took all that time to get those white paint jobs JUST RIGHT--- that something comes along you can feel happy with.
Thank you for this!COMSTAR is cool and mysterious one of my favorites in universe
Mine too!
I have only just discovered your channel, but as a HUGE Comstar fan from the original era of the game, and who played through the Clan Invasion as it released.
The fact that my favourite faction is gone (and my second favourite, the Wolf Wardens, are functionally gone) really does kill enthusiasm for the new eras.
Plenty of other things do too (looking at you special ammo types) but the loss of my favourite faction(s) is the key.
I simply don't want to play the new material.
So just getting into Battletech and Comstar is what drew my in. I am hoping that they come back :)
If battletech was just lore and novels it would be fine to kill off a faction. But it is a game and one thing CGL says it is most important to have fun but how can you do that when you can’t play with your toys if your friends are playing in ilclan? There should have been a path for players to love into besides shelve your models. Also note I do not play comstar but I have had this happen to me in other game systems. Knowing that they are gone stinks explaining this to newer gamers.
40k had a few purges over the years that left lovingly crafted units of mine unusable in anything but an 'old-hammer' match up, that surprise surprise, practically no-one plays.
@@Musabre I feel you my friend I have lost game systems and friend because events like this. But I try to help those newer to systems I’m in to enjoy what we do have.
What made the perma-kill of Comstar egregious was the resurrection of Clans that had been officially destroyed in Canon events. I agree with Big Red that there should be consistency on both sides of the dead/reborn line.
Factions need to die. New factions need to be created. Otherwise the setting will stagnate. There is no drug quite as powerful as nostalgia, and while the old guys of the setting will huff it into perpetuity, it means there will be no new fans.
There's nothing that you couldn't play in 3152 that comstar uses. Their entire military is left over sldf stuff, which is the most common stuff you can find anywhere. You wouldn't even need to repaint them, the Arcturan Guards use the exact same color scheme.
Even after the blakist era it does feel weird, for a religious subculture with deep resources human and financial, that with 8-9 digits numbers of people who probably say "praise blake" when something good happens that the blakists are completely gone. Personally, comstar represents to me the worst kind of power which can be concentrated in exalted institutions whether from their prestigious links to old Terran hard power or their religion, but that's why they were such good villains. And every mustache which will now never be twirled while a body double tries to assassinate the 3rd cousin twice removed to a head of state is a sadness.
Just re-watched this and felt I had to say this is one of the reasons I never truly get into the history or factions in any depth. I love my Big Stompie Mechs and playing the game. But the repetitiveness and mishandling of the over time developers has huge missed opportunities and just like with Comstar now the familiar pattern of creating Red Herrings/McGuffins in stories to try to keep the hopes of fans of now dead factions is to say the least a HUGE missed marketing concern. Oh well, their loss. I hope CGL current pattern strays away from this but as this date like so many other game companies, I doubt it.
This is why I like playing my own Mercenary faction. The business never dies.
The Grim Dark Narrator released a video on Jerome Blake today 🤔🤔🤔. Coincidence or conspiracy, I suspect conspiracy 🤫.
I wholeheartedly agree! Comstar, even in a small amount, could be very interesting.
I didn't like Comstar but I recognise the dynamic the gave the game as a mutual opfor for clan and innersphere alike. They presented a techbase oligarchy that operated on domination through limitation of tech. All others are more social designs they worked at what was the "core" of the true conflict of mankind, the need to advance while also the need for conflict being self destructive.
The Blessed Order is still alive and well in the deep periphery as the ComStar Protectorate. Blessed be Blake
I am skeptical of this lol
I’m not saying that my mercenary company is made up of the survivors of a Blakeist cult or anything, but they do have an odd reverence for their machines. Just saying.
I found a piece of Blake! Look, here's another!
As a Bannson's Raiders player, I can relate. After Megan Tenclay kidnapped Bannson in the story, the player base was supposed to vote and decide the fate of Bannson's Raiders, but then the clix game died and the story was unresolved with Bannson's fate unknown, and it seems like no one wants to go back and give us closure.
I've grown to love the WoB. I would love to see more on them and the celestial battlemechs. I wasn't a fan when they were new and now love them. I find it pretty shitty that they are bringing back all those merc units like wolf's dragoons and gray death legion. But they can't keep comstar around? I really am not a fan of the ilclan era. Clan Wolf is the damn ultramarines of BT.
One way the Com Guards could stick around in the IlClan era when Mercenaries is taking place would be, much like the Eridani Light Horse did and other ex-SLDF groups after the fall of the league, is to turn to mercenary work, rebuilding themselves over time with some financial backing if nothing else from the ROM agents that had infiltrated noble houses, and when the inevitable warring states era they seem keen to set up with how all the factions are breaking up or preparing to break up happens, they could carve out their own minor holdings and defend it from outsiders, a second blessed order. Also, everything was Katherine's fault.
My personal opinion, which might not matter, is that it doesn't matter what official lore says when you understand the official lores history.
Most of the stories are about generals, national leaders, and people that become such. But their are thousands of inhabited star systems in the innersphere and trillions of people. In 3025 their were mercenaries that traced their lineage to the Terran Hegemony and the SLDF. Mechs that were used for hundreds of years. Outside the inner sphere their are periphery states and countless other star systems with inhabitable worlds. Unless you can guarantee every Comstar/WOB/Blessed Order loyal human and cyborg was killed, that no jumpships went missing, that every member was accounted for, then they can show up in one form or another.
They developed a lot of tech that a lot of people would be interested and will to hide people on many worlds to get. Just as an example:
The Magistracy of Canopus has a history of biological and cybernetic modification. By 3150 it's about a century since the clan invasion and both the Wolf's Dragoons and Comstar opened up a little to outsiders to help all against the external threat. There was a group of people on Luna and the belt in the Sol System even better than the Canners at biogenetic modifications. The Wolf Empire doesn't have the manpower to control everything in the Sol System but they are probably making things very difficult for those that don't fit in the clan ways of doing things. Combined with a century to capture and examine clan elemental, mechwarrior and aerospace pilot genomes. It really wouldn't surprise me if the Canopans start fielding units using WOB cybernetics, Comstar electronics and advanced bioengineering technology. How long would it take for others to find out about such augmented MIM agents or since the Magistracy isn't very aggressive that the have thing like quadruped Battlearmor for Clydesdale sized Centaurs.
Lots of rules for different tech at different Eras, but also rules for making your own thing anywhere along the time lines. Are certain things going to require consent from the person on the other side of the table? Yes, but anachronistic tech can be explained a lot of ways.
Comstar having no successor whether a major or minor faction is kind of dumb, they were literally everywhere including the deep periphery had more money than god, and were religious fanatics, yet there is no one left who has access to there stuff and no one who still follows the creed?????
I didn't even consider the comstar path to play as because they've all died before I started, but I would love to play them.
The absorption by the Republic of the Sphere always felt like a dam sham. Giving the RoS more intelligence pull and making them more white hats. ComStar should have been kept as a unique faction.
Comstar need not be gone. That said, i would not give up on the setting simply because my favorite faction was destroyed. I enjoy the fluid nature of the setting and i think that were it as static as some wish it to be (3025-3062 only), the setting would miss a trick so to speak. Also, my favorite NFL team is the Rams. If i bought a stadium in Little Rock they would be the Arkansas Rams. Finally, treating Battletech like 40k seems wrong to me. I dont agree with all of your conclusions but i see the effort you put in and i gotta respect that. Keep it up.
Thank you for this video.
Thanks for enjoying it.
I think one good way to handle Com Star in the new era is like the Imperial remnants in the old EU. Have different factions of Com Star each believing that their way is the correct one and have some infighting to see who's view is right. And maybe have some central figures arise and bring the shattered bits together.
Peace of Blake be with you all. The descendants of the 49th Shadow Division still hold the light of manking in their hearts and deeds.
-Shagan Khaan
Pezhetairoi of Eleusis
Mercenary Company
I see Blakism making a shadow resurgence. Will it be the future Space Phone company in the future? Probably not. Nor should they. There are so many ways you can still have Blakist in the setting in positions of power, but not in the neutral position it once was.
Why yes, i do want my local phone company to murc me in cold blood for finding a vintage toaster.
Awesome video with great points. And I hope the blessed order survived in some form.
I’m waiting for clan Nova Cats revival. I want them to melt the Combine forces with all those medium lasers on the Nova.
I don't think the Nova Cats are coming back, but they do have a successor in the Spirit Cats.
Johnny Fever on WKRP made it clear you don't mess with the phone cops. He was a wise man.
I don't care if I can't play as Com Guards, I can always play as Mercenary Com Guard larpers in the Illclan! Nobody is going to check if my pilots are actually descendants of Com Guards and paint is cheap.
Blake be praised.
I cannot relate to the ComStar fans, but I can imagine how I would feel if GW told me that the Thousand Sons were entirely deleted from the narrative. Or if Catalyst told me the Combine was over.
Funnily enough, the Thousand Sons are kinda similar to them XD
@@BigRed40TECH now I’m going to have to go do some more reading on these ComStar folks as well.
I really like that Comstar Black Knight during the intro.
Cover of the Tukayyid Sourcebook from CGL, it's fantastic.
A big information superpower subtly influencing things is awesome. I never felt comstar was a convenient excuse for sly things happening, but instead usually well executed, mysterious and interesting background figure. I say background because thats their intention.
I will accept the death of comstar when clan wolf gets a trial of annihilation and dies.
The death of comstar is one of the reasons why I am not interested in things past the clan invasion
Blessings of Blake upon you
My introduction to Battletech was Tex's video on Tukayyid and though clearly a biased account really sold the Comguard to me as a faction. So when I started reading the lore and found out they and their successors were gone I was very dejected and basically lost interest in the game for a couple years. Now I'm giving it a go again but am struggling to find a faction that appeals to me as much as the Blakests did
I think that Comstar/Word of Blake was the center of SO many plots, for so long, the fact that they are gone does add realism to the Universe. The Smoke Jaguar Clan was Brutal, but they pale in comparison to what Word of Blake did to the inner sphere.
Total eradication of the sect seems appropriate. When the Republic of the Sphere arrived it made sense that remainder of Comstar joined them.
Having the Republic of the Sphere and Comstar would not have made much sense. Comstar failed and was replaced by the Republic.
I believe one of the best elements of the Battletech Universe is you can play in any area now.
House Davion and Mercenaries have always been my favorite factions. The Gray Death Legion was always my favorite “McGuyver” unit. The Black Widow Company, before anyone had even heard of the Clans.
I firmly believe that like a Phoenix Comstar will rise again in a new form. But it had to be NEW and OLD. NOT, The Second Exodus…ComClans!
I think wargames leaving an enormous number of people behind is probably not a great idea. :|
@@BigRed40TECH I get it. I never knew that many people felt that strongly about Comstar, so you have educated me on that front.
When I played the most, no one played Comstar, because you really couldn’t. They were just Machiavelli in all the main story novels. We had the Comstar Sourcebook, lots of my MW 2nd edition villains were born from that book. I distinctly remember when Tukayyid came out no one could find it. Even when we did finally get a copy I had to run the ComGuard mechs as my group all wanted to paste me as the Smoke Jaguars or Wolf.
Def no disrespect intended to the displaced Comstar fans.
@@danielgranda896 I was kinda stunned by the volume of support they get, it's really significant. It's pretty constant on the channel to the point where I had to bar their content from lore-videos for a while as that's all people voted for. Just even looking at what people are painting, Comguards are super-common when you look around. It's kinda wild.
I think Catalyst have to be aware of the continued popularity of the faction. I wonder how their level 2 box sets have sold? Seems strange to sell them so early in the new series with them relegated them to a "historic" setting (although obviously most of the minis have variants that aren't Comstar). For that matter, there's an interview with Randall Bills by The Boardgame Kaptain at Adepticon, where Randall said one of the yet unscheduled series of mechs he'd most like to do was the Celestials (although he didn't seem to think it'd be welcomed by fans). I have Comstar forces I play with myself (I mostly don't play past the Fedcom Civil War anyway), the only thing I don't like about the faction is that white is a bastard to paint well.
Celestials would sell like mad.
Especially if they became available to some Comguard / Wobbie factions, in the Ilclan era.
As a Steel Viper player, this hits hard.
Oh man, I loved the Vipers when I was younger.
Their self destructive tendencies have stayed true throughout the franchise in such a way that I unironically liked them as a tot, edgedly like them as a teen, and now ruefully love the life lessons and repercussions being kind of shit to everyone brings a individual, community, society, etc.
It's a shame the faction is gone, because that level of self importance and "excellency" added a social parameter to the franchise that I quite enjoyed.