The "Free State of Van Zandt" is the planet Van Zandt, home to unruly individuals that pissed off ComStar so much that ComStar both removed it from interstellar maps and mined the Zenith and Nadir jump points. I love these guys. (the people of Van Zandt, not ComStar)
Also named after a county in Texas that figured during the Civil War if Texas could leave the Union they could leave Texas and tried to do it both during and then after the war.
"Dick lasers" Yeah the Mackie, the first Battlemech, Tex has a video on that. It is worth the view. On the subject of Liao: That family, hell that realm, is a mixed bag of "oh okay party on" and "someone give granpa the anti psychotic medicine please!" Sun Tzu Liao, the Chancellor around the time of that video, is VERY careful not to dip into crazy town. His grandfather, Maximillian, went insane because of Hanse Davion. His mother, Romano, literally placed a hit squad on her sister who returned the favor, via laser bolts. When confronting his aunt over who owns the throne now, she pretty much told him "You keep it, don't go nuts and I won't have to shoot you. Don't come after my kids, or THEY'LL have to shoot you. Peace out". So now you have this guy sitting on the Celestial Throne, trying to keep any and all crazy moments in check all while his sister thinks she's the embodiment of Kali the death Goddess. Have fun with that. On the subject of the Free Worlds League. Death to Marik, they killed Marik, Glory to Marik They are the one House I would suggest to people who don't want tot be mercenaries but do want a faction to be in for the Inner Sphere. Yes their economy is strong, but also wildly unregulated sometimes. Yes their religious tolerance is right up there with the Federated Suns, but their cultural differences also have caused civil wars. Yes they've had plenty of civil wars, but they'll also hold back on punching their brethren to go across the street and kick the Lyrans or the Confederation in the teeth at times, all while having their brothers and sisters either help or hurt the cause. It is a wonderful collective of mad lads and lasses who fist fight at a family picnic. On the subject of Katherine Steiner-Davion and "What did she do?!" Can I just smugly smile and say with a gallows humor tone, "She did flower arrangements".
Sun Tzu Liao was or is probably the last sane Capellan leader since Aleisha Liao who forwarded the Ares Convention to the Great Houses. Then she biffs it and the next guy tries to hit the Tuarians with the 500,000 kiloton stick.
Heck, from what I understand, New Avalon was itself a planet-sized theme park based around Arthurian Mythology, back in the days of the Terran Alliance.
58:00 So, when you commit Seppuku you always have a guy standing over you with a sword, because he is the guy who actually kills you. The dying party, will stab themselves with the dagger, drawing it across their body, to open up their abdomen. This is excruciatingly painful and will kill you EVENTUALLY, but not for some considerable time. Its more a show of your willingness to put yourself through such pain and redeem your honour and when you can't take said pain any more, you give the signal to the guy with the sword, who beheads you and puts you out of your misery
Partly right. The part of cutting yourself open starts with a horizontal cut across the abdomen, then a turn to vertical up under the ribcage. The vertical cut is called something like an 'honor cut', and when the witness/assistant see's that cut, THEN he takes your head to put you out of your misery. If you do not make the vertical cut, thus reclaiming your honor, he'll just leave you to bleed out in agony.
And I’m not sure if it was common practice or something that happened occasionally but there were times where a third guy would be off to the side in full battle gear just in case you decided “f this I’m going to make a fight of it”. If it did happen I’m assuming it would be for high ranking prisoners that can’t be ransomed or anything like that (a sort of “we have no use for you so we’ll give you the option to die honourably”)
The 'mech at 47:06 is a _Fafnir_ assault mech... infamous for hauling around two _HEAVY_ Gauss Rifles (basically gauss rifles on steroids) in the left and right torsos. Also, Duncan Fisher is a canon immigrant from _a videogame_ of all things (and Battletech, as a franchise, doesn't canonize videogames all that much). Everyone loved his bit in Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries that they canonized him as a character.
Katherine Steiner-Davion is considered the reason House Davion and House Steiner's attempted to make one single government with the strengths of both and weaknesses of neither ended in a brutal civil war before they finished annihilating the Capellans and took over the inner sphere with a Star League 2.0. Some think it was Comstar that helped set up the civil war for they didn't like the houses united to make a new Star League, and were pissed House Davion and Steiner caught on their actions and were starting a counter-intelligence against them. Along with House Kurita. And I won't say any more than it is likely aided Katherine in the background, but it was Katherine's fault. Regardless of who was responsible (probably Katherine alone), the Fedcom Civil War was messed up, and Katherine was regarded as the main antagonist in her attempted coup.
And worse yet the Fed-Com Civil war was the distraction that enabled the Blakists to kick off the Jihad (which technically started before the Fed-Com civil war ended). And don't forget plotting with the Capellans that ultimately caused Star League 2.0 to fall apart faster than the League of Nations. So Katrina is frequently blamed for sinking the inner sphere back into the Dark Ages (which really weren't that dark actually and more of a silver age rebuilding period)
Yup, she borrowed a few pages from Amaris’ book and turned the Federated Commonwealth into a full on police state while her big brother was away kicking clan Smoke Jaguar’s butt and stopping the clan invasion for good.
Katherine Steiner-Davion also preferred being called Katrina Steiner-Davion because THE BITCH was banking off her absolutely adored Grandmother's name.
Kathrine Steiner-Davion is the main reason why there was the civil war. There was no implication that Comstar was part of the plan to separate the two states mainly because Frederick Steiner/ Anastasius Focht was the head of Comguards at the time. Not to mention that Myndo Waterly tried to take over the Inner Sphere with Operation SCORPION only to be shot by Focht himself. So...it had little to no issue. If you're assuming that Comstar had a hand in killing Arthur Steiner-Davion, I think if that was the case Victor would have caught wind and the current Primus would have had their head evacuated before the plan could ever put in place. Kathrine pretty much was a schemer all her life, she was the 2nd child and her elder brother was seen as a man of the people, a MechWarrior's warrior (whom Kathrine never bothered to put time in the martial side of her training). Hence the bitter resentment, Arthur's death is forever a mystery and I do not take Ray Arrastia notes as an account because you dont throw away a good potential character like Arthur as some cyborg drone.
41:03 No, its not a clan Casino, its a Clanner IN a casino, a Jade Falcon elemental specifically by the looks of it and thus that pick pocket evidently has a Death Wish
To be fair to Steiner, it was actually Hanse Davion who declared war on the Cappellans on his wedding day, Melissa Steiner was just his bride. Their eldest child was Victor Steiner-Davion, who inherited the Federated Commonwealth (the union of the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth) when his parents died. His sister stole the Lyran half away while he was busy fighting against the Clans in the Great Refusal, and ignited the FedCom Civil War, for which she was rewarded by getting thrown out of Lyran space, hunted down, and eventually made a bondswoman by Khan Vlad Ward of Clan Wolf.
"Is that a griffon?" Nooo, that's the new sculpt of the Battlemaster. Also that gundum knockoff is from the Japanese version of battletech. They have a lot of alternatives sculpts and a few mechs that never got official sculpts in the west or even appear in a tech manual, I think you could find them in the magazines and that's about it. They're not exactly unseen (that term belongs to mechs caught up in Harmony Gold's bullshit), but it's questionable if they're cannon or not. "What is that?" **Sigh** it's a Centurion. AC 10, LRM 10, med lasers X 2, unless your last name is Alard-Liao, in which case you shoehorn an AC 20, or gauss rifle into the arm. "I'm guessing that's an Awesome?" Zeus.
In regards to the 'Mech you called the Unseen... funny story. The reason why they were called the Unseen is because the earliest Battlemech designs used designs from Macross and several other anime that they licensed, only for another company to contest the claim to the license. When Battletech was brought to Japan, all the Unseen were given completely new looks so not to be confused with existing series that used those designs.
Age tuum negotium: 'Mind your own business' 49:37 Katherine Steiner-Davion. AKA Katrina Steiner-Davion. AKA 'Auntie Katrina'. AKA 'That lady that went off her meds and started the FedCom Civil War'.
49:43 Yep, Katherine Steiner-Davion was the ruler of the Federated Commonwealth (the union of the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth). She caused the FedCom civil war, because she thought the Davions became way too overbearing (she wasn't wrong, but she still causes a horrific war through excessive dickery on her part). This is not a Tex spoiler since he didn't touch the FedCom era yet and it might take a few years before he comes to that point.
Well to be fair....House Steiner's way of winning was throwing bodies at their enemies until they ran out of bullets or got bored....or some low level commander was smart enough to supersede their social general and score them a victory. Kathrine Steiner and Melissa Steiner-Davion were actually disliked heavily by the nobility. Peter Steiner Davion who took over after Kathrine was 'rescued' by Vlad Ward was disliked partly because the Generals and Nobility thought he was a puppet for Victor...and even Adam Steiner who was by far the most celebrated Archon (next to his Great Aunt and Aunt) was disliked by said nobility and social generals for actually doing what the Feds do....place people of competence into positions of power. Katrina killed her mother for power, then placated to the Steiner Nobility, Nondi and social generals to keep her power at the cost of the people. Its funny, under Davion rule (mainly Hanse and Victors) the Steiner military was far stronger, their economy was far better and tech base was rapidly growing. Its only the Steiner nobles who saw them as 'stuffy' because they couldn't create these enclaves of power.
All of the "Era's" which came after the "Clan Invasion" happened mostly because of the IP changing hands and them (the new owners) wanting to make the setting "Bigger and more epic". In other words they each were trying to do a reset of the IP by larger and larger amounts of "Power Creep" trying to make everything before unplayable in the game. Also the stories seemed to get weirder and weirder. This is why for so many people/fans of the game and setting, the timeline kind of stops shortly after the "Battle of Tukayyid". Because shit started getting too weird, even for us nerds... and that is kind of saying something.
It's actually the Japanese Shadowhawk. The original Unseens were derived from Macross, Crusher Joe and Dougram. Obviously they couldn't use them in Japan so they got the art studio who did Macross to design new versions for the Japanese edition and that is what we got
If you want Solaris matches narrated by Duncan Fisher, you're in luck. The character started as the commentator for the Solaris matches in MechWarrior 4 mercenaries which is now freeware and is still a good game.
About the Seppuku image when talking about Raselhauge... The guy behind the warrior committing seppuku - the one with the sword - he is there to take the warrior's head /after/ he does the act, but before he can further dishonor his family by showing pain. That's a normal part of the tradition of seppuku. The guy with the gun is in case he changes his mind, since he would otherwise face capital punishment. Of the name of worlds - Sarna has been on BattleTech's books for far longer than the website has existed, and was fittingly a Star League data repository. Van Zandt is also an official world. It is in the periphery, near the Magistracy of Canopus and the Taurian Concordat. The same general region as the HBS BattleTech game takes place. In the lead up to that game's release, the crew of Hairbrained Schemes and the actors from the studio Dead Gentlemen Presents did a series of live action role-play sessions on Hyper RPG on Twitch. Those sessions are here on TH-cam on HyperRPG's channel. I highly recommend them. They play with 3D printed 'Mechs about 6" tall, and actually drill them for damage, and repairs between sessions are actual repairs with epoxy putty... Crazy stuff, and lots of fun!
The "head" is where all the cockpits on humanoid mechs are. When you consider that the engine is a mico-sun, and the source of all the heat. You want to be about as far from it as you can safely get. Besides, it'd be very hard to eject from somewhere further into the mech, even if it meant better armor for you.
You have a few mechs that have torso cockpits, notably the Wild Fire and Great Turtle, Also, the few mechs that use interface cockpits like the Skinwalker have their cockpit in the torso.
In fact, the Federated Suns official languaje is french. Also the Federated Marches aren't (mostly) conquered territories, the names of the frontier Marches come from the neighbours.
"Marik is the nerd house!" ... look up 'Kriegspiel' historically, and how it connected to the Prussian military. You will understand how this is derived from an understanding of the history of wargaming :)
The Capellens are not stable. They are losing territory and are only surviving as a state due to the efficiency of their core worlds near Sian. The clan invasion has stopped their collapse. For now...
Post Clan Invasion the Capellans went on the upswing and managed to level some pretty innovative technology to get an advantage. By the 3150s they're the same size as the FWL and probably the best positioned of the lot, though there's an awful lot of shoes dropping.
@@phantam23 That is interesting! I pulled up a "modern" map and it practically made my eyes water. Just what was the canonical reason for it other than the authors wanted it this way?
@@robert8659 A pretty big number of reasons. The Capellans and Leaguers were the least affected by the Clan Invasion, what with them being on the other side of the sphere. They also had a strong and sane leader in the form of Sun Tzu Liao, who forged a strong alliance with the Canopians (and a short lived one with the Taurians). The Lyrans and Feddies had a civil war that weakened them and the Dracs were hit the hardest by the Clans. This gave Capellans the room to focus on R&D, iterating on Stealth tech, and pioneering Plasma weapons. They managed to hold civil relations with Marik for a decent time, leaving them only fighting on one front, and at one point the Free Worlds League flat out got dissolved and returned to being a bunch of independent nations (just another tuesday in the league). Meanwhile the Capellans just kept moving forwards, with the other nations catching up over time.
@@phantam23 Forgive me, but wasn't it part of the concord for fighting the clans that the houses would refrain from taking worlds? So how did Capella get bigger? Otherwise Davion just pulls back the troops and keep on keeping on.
@@robert8659 From what I recall? They started fighting back once the FedCom Civil War caused an issue, and a lot of gains happened during the fall of the Republic during that era - in fact they were pressuring Republic borders for some time during the 'Dark Ages' era. (The Clix game had them be the first House to start blatantly making trouble instead of having a faction doing it "for them" like Kurita, Steiner, and Davion did...)
5:38 It is actually more surprising that Cairo hasn't grown any further than it is today in that shot. If you have been there, you'll know what i mean. But for those who don't, let me tell you: If you pan but one screen-width to the right from this very perspective today, you'd see the houses of Cairo's suburbs. the Sphinx and the pyramids are quite literally on the edge of the city today (or to be fair about18-ish years ago when I was there anyway) heck, I wouldn't be surprised if the mechs you see there belonged to Cairo's police department - because back then they were already rocking MPs and f*in assault rifles! 47:00 This, my friend, is a Fafnir - one of my favourites as Battlemechs go. And what you thought to be a PPC is in actuality a lot worse than that. What you are looking at right there are twin Heavy Gauss Rifles, which while short-range deal damage on par with or even slightly above what an AC-20 can do. Each. And since it is a gauss weapon, it means heat-buildup is essentially non-existant. Heavy Gauss are SO potent, that they risk knocking the shooting mech over by sheer recoil. And keep in mind, we are talking a 100-ton behemoth here...
Dangit arier. I never thought of the combine's pillars that way, but I knew what you were going to say the moment you paused and now I can't get it out of my head.
The difference between steiners and prussian empire is that the prussian empire had a scary competent army. Just look up some of the YT documentaries about the "franco prussian war" like "glory and defeat" here on YT to see what an absolute ass kicking it was and is a prime example of a tukayyid level of asskicking that a well disciplined and trained force enacted against a technologically superior enemy who had nearly every advantage
I've seen a decent argument that the Lyrans are more like Austria-Hungary in its prime. Some distinct internal cultural divisions, military that looks stupidly powerful on paper yet has some severe internal issues, but also an ability to bounce back from getting beat up like its nothing, a huge economic base and a mostly defensively and conservative-oriented foreign policy that gets interrupted by the odd high noble/general getting a bee in his bonnet or an outside power seriously pissing them off.
Van Zant is from the later tex talks videos. On that note make sure to watch the Mackie and the ones that come after it in order as they are more interconnected than the previous lectures. Not just the story elements and the running jokes. Some of the actual lecture stuff really needs to be viewed in order.
57:30 This isn't the first time the Draconis Combine has had to deal with 'Ronin'. Back in the early Star League era, a bunch of their samurai mechwarriors went rogue over joining Star League and a following edict from Michael Cameron II that restricted the house military sizes (in favour of the SLDF of course). These rogue mechwarriors started calling themselves Ronin and picking fights with SLDF garrisons in what became the First Hidden War. The SLDF in response, started the Gunslinger program to give the Ronin the honourable death in combat they were after. (The Coordinator in the meantime said the Ronin were beyond his authority, and probably enjoyed the show). Those Ronin who survived actually ended up becoming part of the SLDF and many served as instructors for the Gunslinger program. EDIT: The guy with the sword is to behead him after he disembowls himself. It's part of the execution so that he doesn't lie there screaming, bleeding all over everything, and dying a slower death than necessary.
Most mechs, if I'm not mistaken at least with bipedal models, have the cockpits in the head. Others like the Marauder and the Locust, it's fairly easy to see where the cockpit is. They don't use cameras in many cases to pilot mechs, they have reinforced glass like we have on military aircraft today, just way more advanced, because sensors and cameras can be damaged, the mk. I eyeball can't, unless you get blasted in the face, in which case you're probably dead anyway. Also, Katherine Steiner-Davion... yeah, diss track might actually be an understatement for what she needs.
The 'mech at 16:54 is a Studio Nue (yes, _THAT_ Studio Nue) redesign of the Shadowhawk, if my memory is correct. FASA had contracted Studio Nue to import Battletech into Japan... alongside some _juicy_ exclusive design rights for some Macross mecha like the Rifleman... ... but Harmony Gold quite literally canned that via their lawsuit shenanigans.
Another bit to that ComStar and Rasalhague deal that was missed, but interesting in its implications is that ComStar didn't just ask Kurita to give it up for the sake of stability in the inner sphere necessarily... ... they BRIBED Kurita to do it, giving them a Lostech Cache that ended up proving pivotal to upgrading their war industry just in time to score two of the biggest (and first) victories against the Clan Invasion, at Wolcott and at Luthien.
Thing about the FWL is really that, except for one or two novels, there really wasn't anything sphere-shaking that happened there pre-Clan invasion, except for two biggies: one side of the civil war between Janos and Anton Marik held hostage and eventually executed a group of the Wolf's Dragoons, which kinda pissed them off, and the Gray Death Legion (despite ComStar shenanigans) found a Star League database and proceeded to distribute it to all the Successor States, which both really pissed ComStar off, and started to reverse centuries of technological backsliding.
The Japanese editions of Battletech had different mechs because of licensing issues. There were no gundam mecha in the game, a lot of the mechs in this version were redesigned by Shoji Kawamori, famous for his mech work in Macross.
Well, Arier, if you're wondering about the Draconis Combine's "Bureau of Substitution", it's main job is.... weird; basically it oversees the shuffling of DCMS (Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery) personnel between units- specifically when they're being transferred without being promoted; best way I can describe it is that, if some poor schmuck of a trooper gets shuffled off to some backwater posting to get them out of sight and out of mind, it's by the oversight of the Bureau of Substitution.
Kathrine steiner Davion deposed Victor. Took over the whole fedcom. Killed her mother, brother, oldest daughter of therodore kurita. Fedcom civilwar was her vs. Victor.
Should note on the oldest daughter, that was Victor's girlfriend. Also her death is what lead to him breaking down and finally saying a civil war is a good thing.
Going that the Milky Way is shaped like a misshaped Cape Cod potato chip, the 3D representation of the Inner Sphere would be VERY VERRYYYYYYYYYYYYYY interesting.
27:00 Capellan actually don't interfere with religion freedom... at the start. After the Succession Wars begin, House Liao started to supported or suppress certain religions for their own agenda. But still, some local government will choose to not suppress local religions in order to gain population's support. So it's entirely possible to see Christian in the Confederation. 28:55 For a good person in House Liao, you can look up Aleisha Liao (aka. the one whom make Ares Conventions into reality) on Sarna.
@@Airier Yes, you even said you would stick by it when you watched the Blackjack Video (which was originally placed between the star league civil war two-parter and the primer to the clans) before you watched the fall of star league videos even as the comments were screaming at you to watch the two fall videos first. Next in line, after the clan primer, is the Mackie video, then the rifleman, marauder and lastly, Warhammer.
Airier, Seppuku is supposed to be done with two people, one for the person that is cutting his guts open, and the other to cut off his head to end it quickly and take it to be buried so the guy's enemies have no trophy to claim. The guy with the gun is there to make sure they do, probably as a third-party witness. Also, I think it's applied the lectures are set before the Dark Ages, for the reason they call it the dark age is well the HMG FTL communication and Comstar cease to exist is why it is called the Dark Age. As in the last remnant of the Star League and most advanced technology was destroyed.
The mech at 11:42 is just a Wolverine, you've seen it plenty. That mech you think is an unseen is I believe the Japanese version of the Battlemaster. When they brought Battletech to Japan they redesigned everything and changed up the lore a bit so that it would better appeal to the Japanese. I hate Davion due to the universe wanting you to love them, Davion are a bunch of holier than thou dickheads who only think they're better than everyone else. The mech at 38:30 is a Mackie, as you know it's the first Battlemech.
I think they also redesigned the Japanese battletech mechs because a lot of the Unseen would be easily recognized as Macross and Dougram and Crusher Joe mecha. So they just wanted to avoid that entire hairball. That said, I do like some of the redone designs from that series. Had a very nice functional but complicated feel to them.
@@Jake9066 yeah the Japanese Battlemaster had like, headfrills and stuff. Wonder if the same team that designed then did the mecha for Macross 7, because I always got serious Varauta vibes from the designs. The cover art for Japanese BT is glorious though. Damn. Just found that out today.
Davions are also hyper-imperialistic and start wars just because they like some free real estate. While I do appreciate their distaste for war crimes, the setup as "The Good Guys™" always left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm glad the newer lore is a bit more nuanced. For me, every one of the Great Houses is morally grey at best.
About the seppuku thing: its depicted here the correct way: the guy knives open his own gut, and then an assistant lops off the head immediately after so death comes quick and the guy doesn suffer an agonisingly long death and/or have time to regret his action and overall make the death undignified
4:00 Look up the Civil War History of Van Zandt, TX. It will explain SO MUCH. 38:00 That is a Mackie. The next mech you will be learning about from Professor Tex. 50:30 All I will say is look at her name, look at the map from teh Battle of Tuukiad, and draw what conclusions you may. 54:20 The Last Parade premiered in the Warhammer video, but can be watched separately. It's what you are seeing part of here, in fact...
The clans are fascinating. One of the best written sci-fi villains / anti-hero. Fixing some problems and creating a lot of new ones. Consequences and exodus of a veteran military force, trying to create a new society. What could go wrong?
1. On King Arthur, one of the Mariks actually had one of his guys read what I assume to be an original copy of "Le Morte D'Arthur" to learn about lofty knights. 2. I've looked before and I haven't found a 3D map of the Inner Sphere. As far as I know, one doesn't exist, and if it does, no way it's an official thing; fan created most likely.
Ahh yes, Ideal War. Where Fako Marik sends a Knight of King Arthur to space Nam so that they can hit space Nuke Laden, his traitorous secessionist allies and the definitely not religious phone company with the Phoenixhawk o' justice and honor! This is also the book where "Comstar" calls losses as "Deficit" and "Profit". A loss and a win as Fako Marik puts.
Hello Airier. At 9:00, that is not a Shadow Hawk, but instead, a Wolverine. And given the 'actual' size of Mechs, the pilot in the cockpit is 'to scale'.
I think he did use the color shark tooth atlas and Cicada picture before, it's just been a while. Well yeah, the desire for power, resources, and getting one up on your longtime enemy/rival neighbor, but also how Amaris and Kerensky both showed not only seemingly impossible feats scheming and war fighting, but that ruling families were once more very much in danger during total war. Add on the removal of Star League to keep the peace, and now there was the idea that there was both much more to gain AND much more to loose in those turbulent times that were between a status quo. Don't know where Van Zandt is, but it is where Tex' character is currently living and working. Probably deep periphery, I'm guessing either by Taurian and Lyran space. That would be a clip from Hired Steel where Tex plays a lance leader. There are two main periods where the mechs fighting on Terra would be. The final years of the Amaris Civil War, or the efforts to free Tera from the Word Of Blake. The latter notably debuted the first working Superheavy weight class battlemech, the Omega. Also a submersible class that was a mobile base that could serve as a dropship killer. The Wyrm. Oh, and then the refurbished Rattlers. The middle card is probably the Com Guard post Tukayid, pre Jihaad. He mentioned radioactive ash. That's probably an occupying force in the picture too, so it's not necessarily even their statue. I like to think that somewhere in the Draconis Combine there are a bunch of dudes trying to be Southern Genteel culinarians of authentic pre FTL Japanese cuisine. Just a whole lot of historical, commercial, and cultural wires that got crossed. Given how many KFCs my folks saw on a recent trip in Europe, and how few we saw on some more recent long drives in the Sates, KFC generally seems to be focusing more on foreign markets than domestic ones. Look up the Berserker if you're searching for a melee mech. Mechs are usually piloted from the head, but the transparent canopy here is a bit odd. That mech with the wicked grin is an Akuma. Made as an in-universe Atlas imitator. It was commissioned by the Draconis Combine to be a cheaper domestic alternative to the Atlas. It is cheaper, but only by 108,520 C-bills. For a mech that costs over 9.5 million C-Bills. It has a..... varied arsenal. The French and English have more in common than they care to admit. I think the marches next to their neighbors were named based on how they shared a border with more than whose flag used to fly there, but the maps do seem to imply that the Federated Suns have taken bites out of the Capellan Confederation over the decades and centuries. That's a centurion (on a volcanic world). Solid medium mech. I think it's a Zeus. The inner sphere came up with their own battle armor designs after the Clans showed up. As far as I know, the Capellans don't try to use lobotomy as a tool to keep people in line, but they are a police state, so I imagine that the serfs are spied on endlessly with there being an ever present implied threat of being black bagged in the night. I've heard Sun Tzu Liao is usually a bit of a Gary Stu. Can't confirm. Hearing how history nerdage founded the FWL is charming. That mech is a Mackie. The first of the Battlemechs. Very crude, but.... you'll see. It's an effective anti-vehicle/infantry mounting position. Not a clanner casino, but a clanner in a casino. That tattoo is the only thing in the picture which screams clanner. The FWL can apparently be frequently divided internally, but funny thing about attacking a bunch of people who usually attack each other. Sometimes they get really ticked off at someone butting in on the family feuding, and will agree to throw you out first, saving their squabbles for when there isn't a common threat. 46:29 Those are Fafnirs. Each is armed with two HEAVY. GAUSS. RIFLES. along with two ER medium lasers and a medium pulse laser. I'd say eve of WWI Germany. Eve of German unification Prussia was actually very well led. I have no doubt we'll get to Kathrine in time. She played a very PITVOTal role in events. I shall refrain from saying what I know* about her and her actions, but I look forward to when Tex gets to covering her. Solaris VII is a planet that invites people from all over to come take a shot at being a star mech jock gladiator in the arenas. As such, I imagine there are a lot of different types from a lot of different places there. This would certainly explain the contrasting architecture. From what I understand, the Duncan Fisher character has been Solaris fight commentator since Mechwarrior 4. So that was already a thing. Your character could enter fights, and he'd be the announcer/commentator. The scout squad animatic is called the Last Parade. It premiered in the credits of the Warhammer video. I'd be curious to see a breakdown of what the asset differences between the Free Rasalhague Republic (the least of the Successor States) and the Taurian Concordat (generally the grandest of the Periphery States.) I mean, while they don't go to war, the modern militaries of the once Scandinavian regions are not to be messed with unless you have a darn good reason. At least from everything I've heard about their on paper capabilities. I mean, there was an attempted military coup by the most diehard Japanese militarists in the final days of WWII to keep Japan from surrendering. Keep in mind, this was after the second atomic strike. And the firebombing. And the wrecking of their navy. And their failures in China. And Russia maybe considering a joint invasion. So I totally believe Kurita had to lay down the law on some Samurai mech jocks who didn't like giving up worlds for peace. Remember, the Combine is a heavily militaristic society whose warriors are fed manifest destiny type propaganda. They see their purpose as making war and taking land. To deny them that makes them behave extra irrationally. The guy with the Katana behind you is a traditional part of the ritual. You hwk your belly, and before your death becomes really undignified, the guy behind you is supposed to hwk your head in one swing. If he messes up, then he's potentially next in line after you're done. The spec ops guy is presumably acting as supervision to make sure you don't try anything funny. Tex' character is probably at least a few years past 3067, since he mentions that maps after it get fuzzy. We'll see.
I've seen it joked that the Free Worlds League fighting other Inner Sphere powers is like Verdun, while the Free Worlds League fighting in among itself is like the Expendables, and as a Marik fan, it's far from incorrect. "Welcome to the Free Worlds League, please let us take your coat and once we're finished kicking the shit out of each other we'll be right with you." Glory to Marik!
16:55 that is a rare sight of the Japanese version of the Shadow Hawk. You see, when BattleTech was made it licensed a bunch of their designs (the future unseen) from various Japanese animes and mangas. This wasn't really a problem in America due to those series being almost unheard of (until Harmony Gold decided to ruin the fun), but when BattleTech was imported to Japan, this wasn't going to fly. To allow the series to be sold, Studio Nue (the ones behind the Macross series art, or Robotech as the USA knows it) purchased the rights and redrew all of the art to allow the series to sell without lawsuits. If you look up Japanese BattleTech art you can find a different take on the series that is rather interesting. I recommend looking at the various archives of JBT artwork, it's interesting seeing how a different culture does the art differently.
@@gozillabk The whole fiasco was actually a big thing for international copyright laws. The impact of FASA vs Harmony Gold vs Hasbro vs (various other minor players) can still be felt today in writing of those laws.
25:57 It's weird seeing planets called Ipswitch and Goodna, both of which I have lived in. Didn't really expect two towns west of Brisbane to feature in the Battletech universe. And it's disconcerting that they exist in Capellan space. 35:13 Now you know why I go in for Free Worlds League.
32:09 That's Thomas Marik, he's one of the better captain generals of the free world's league, he got those scars from a bomb going off that killed his brother and father...or at least that's the *_Record corrected, Praise Blake_* anyway's he's a pragmatic idealist.
KFC and Japanese Christmas. Remember, Japan isn't a majority-christian nation so public celebration of Christmas there is a relatively new thing. The tradition of a large feast for extended family is something usually only very wealthy households could pull-off not just due to expense but due to everyone living in shoebox apartments without a kitchen big enough to make such a meal. In this environment the KFC 'Bucket' suddenly makes perfect sense.
58:15 the man standing over the samurai committing seppuku is the second and he is there to finish the ritual. He will cut the samurais head off after the belly was cut, to ensure the samurai did not suffer a loss of honor by bleeding out in an undignified manner. The position of second was on of honor, and the second was nominated by the warrior commiting seppuku to perform this act. In the lore Jamie Wolf (the leader of wolfs dragoons) was nominated as the second for Minobu Tetsuhara. Wolf was apalled by this as Tetsuhara was a close friend. Nonetheless Wolf fulfilled his role and gave Minobu am honorable death. He then, in fury walked into the wedding of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner (they declared war in the same afternoon as the wedding) and threw Minobu's swords at the feet of the head of the Draconis Combine, blaming him personally for the circumstances of Minobu's dishonor and ritual suicide. He declared a blood feud between the Wolfs Dragoons and the entire Draconis Combine and the dragoons spent the entire 4th succession war (started by Hanse Davion at the wedding later that afternoon... with a dinner plate) kicking Kurita ass and taking dragon names everywhere they went.
46:58 I read here: 2 Heavy Gauss-Rifles (I think that Mech is a Templar, these hit HARD, but medicore range. Fun to use close range) Ammo for Heavy Gauss Medium Pulslaser Guardian ECM CASE-protection
Fafnir actually. 100 tons of pure, unadulterated Lyran rage. The Templar by comparison is only 85 tons hauling a standard Gauss rifle, Large pulse laser, Medium pulse laser, 2 Extended Range Medium lasers, and a Streak SRM4, with 16.5 tons of armor compared to the Fafnir's 19.5 tons.
50:16 - meet Katherine Steiner-Davion. The woman who: Usurped the throne of the Federaded commonwealth from Archon-Prince Victor Steiner-Davion Broke the Federated Commonwealth Assassinated her own mother Assassinated Vitcor's lover (Omi Kurita) Likely arranged the desth of her brother Arthur Ignited the frdcom civil war (the most destructive conflict sonce the first succession war) Was taken into the crusader Wolves by Khan Vlad Ward himself Was the genemother of Alaric Ward - the wolf who conquer terra, ended the republic of the sphere, and elevate Clam wolf to ilclan. Yeah - she deserves her own episode.
The picture at 12:03 did have a phoenix hawk in it, but that was in the bottom right corner fighting something in the background. I think the confusing mech in the foreground was a wolverine, a 55-ton medium mech that normally is shown with that body shape, has a shoulder-mounted SRM-6 in the left torso and an AC5 in the right arm. That centerpiece mech was also about the right scale to be a wolverine, while seeing a similar picture of an atlas would probably put the guy's face in the mech's left eye. Also, the new Rise of Rasalhague DLC has you taking the role of a mercenary commander that fought on behalf of the Free Rasalhague Republic during the Ronin War.
He’s taken a lesson or two from The homeworld video games when it comes to his images. The one with the nukes blowing everything up comes from his episode on the Mackie originally. Also Sun Tzu Liao was just a really good chancellor he wasn’t really a good person though. In his early years he attempted to murder political rivals during training exercises in a very blatant way even though they were technically allies at that point.
Katherine Steiner-Davion basically undid the Federated Commonwealth and drove a wedge between two houses who (for the most part) were the most chill with each other (due to not sharing a boarder with ether other).
28:20: Nah, Capellan "Servitors" were basically just completely disenfranchised state-owned slaves. And, uh, yeah, this caused issues. There's a reason the Capellans' handbook on *riot control* tactics and procedures has multiple paragraphs regarding the use of *flamethrowers* in such a tactical environment. Also, their secret police makes even *Kurita* go "Whoa, that's a bit drastic, isn't it?" every once a while.
@Airier yeah the Maskirovka have absolutely no chill. Taking out an entire city block to kill a single "alleged" spy is practically standard operating procedure.
KFC on Christmas - there's a LOT of weird, relatively recent culturally specific stuff like that, really. In Poland, the Christmas Eve meal is traditionally supposed to technically be a religious fast, without red meat or poultry, just fish. And there's not really a basis for it in the Catholic Church. More than that - keeping a live carp in the bathtub and slaughtering it for Christmas Eve is considered a tradition, but it originated with the People's Republic of Poland when Poland was a soviet satellite, because of food shortage - live carp was one of the few things that were actually widely available and easy to keep for a few days. And, of course, it turned into "things were always like this and we should keep the tradition."
I'm just imagining a Polish kid who got attached to the bathtub carp just releasing it and ruining Christmas. Another odd or well INSANE one would probably be Good Friday in the Philippines. just look it up. Apparently it started as a play sometimes around the 50s and 60s and then turned into that. How it turned from play to that I have no idea but that's some dedication!
The guy with sword is to chop the guys head off to finish the ritual. You make three cuts on belly then head cut off. If you fail to make three cuts the head off.
57:00: Oh, it was totally ComStar doing their typical fuckery. Essentially, after kicking the Capellans to the curb in the 4th Sucession War and uniting Steiner and Davion into the FedCom, ol' Hanse Davion wanted to stomp the Draconis Combine into a rump state next. Because with the Free World's League being busy fighting each other again and the Capellans absolutely wrecked by the 4th Succession War, Kurita was the only serious threat to the FedCom left. ComStar proceeded to pull enormous amounts of fuckery to turn the ensuing war of '31 into a meatgrinder rather than a one-sided stomp, and then played "neutral arbitrator" for a peace treaty that resulted in the Lyrans and Dracs having to release a neutral buffer state between them that would prevent the FedCom from attacking Kurita from two fronts again. They essentially dragged the Draconis Combine kicking and screaming out of getting curbstomped, all so that there was still a serious rival to the Steiner-Davions.
25:00 So those are the capitol worlds of the various Commonalities that make up the Cappellan Confederation. Sarna, is the capitol of the Sarna Commonality, Cappella is capitol of the Cappellan Commonality ect and Sian is the overall capitol of the Confederation and the traditional seat of House Liao. And naturally, the theme tune chosen for House Liao is *PAPERS PLEASE!*
That mech on a japanese issue of Battletech is Shadow Hawk. And you guessed right, it's done by same artist who did mechs for Armored Core 4. White Glint is basically Phoenix Hawk 2.0. And no, it's not "unseen". Unseens are designs from macross (robotech), dougram and third show I always forget name of. Crusher Joe? Anyway. Japanese issue instead of unseens/reseens and non borrowed designs just got it's own looks for each mech.
The process of sepuku involves: 1) ritual suicide to cleans dishonor by slicing into your own belly first horizontally, then vertically, and 2) a ‘second’ to take off your head should you fail to complete the task, to avoid dishonoring yourself with that failure. And because the cuts themselves are an incredibly slow, painful way to die. The guy with the gun? Probably the witness to ensure it is actually done, and (as you guessed) put a bullet through the brain pan of both should they try to escape.
The Lyran social generals are legendary in their general incompetence, but they had a few actual generals who weren't all that bright either. Just look up Marshal Sharon Bryan, she is literally the original Admiral Holdo, (I wouldn't be surprised if she was the inspiration for the latter.) and a Katherine simp of the worst kind. I could go into how badly she underestimated the clans, but her entry on Sarna describes her epic failure FAR better than I ever could.
4:20 Mind your buisness. That is both a threat to stay out of the Perhipery, and a translation of the Van Zandt seal. *Pumps shotgun* And I meant that first thing.
I mean the First War of the big Succ was started because Minorou Kurita woke up one morning and decided he alone was First Lord of the Star League post-Cameron.
Btw way to point out the French influence in House Davion. If you remember Britain for a while was conquered first by the Romans, then the Angles/Saxons/Jutes, then William the Conqueror (from France). People seem to forget that bit of history.
House Kurita: When we say put a planet to the sword we are not speaking figuratively. House Davion: Liberating the Inner Sphere one political marriage and smoldering crater at a time. House Liao: You do not have to be crazy to rule here, but it helps. House Marik: Do not bother attacking us, we have that covered. House Steiner: If it weighs under 80-tons we are not interested.
I find it funny when i've been in a group where two Atlas and a Highlander showed up as part of a Lance+ tanks ambush of my groups lance of medium mechs... My little hoplite that everyone was making fun of me for taking this slow, no jump jet medium mech, tanked all three of those and the catapult firing at it. Managed to start waddling away because it had ZERO armor on the front left after the other sides alpha strike in this ambush, and just flipped arms and fired backwards still engaging while showing it's still armored ass to the enemy. We destroyed the enemy that match and the GM was just left confused that we not only only two pilots, and only one mech (not mine) but we not only succeeded in pulling out, but we actually won the engagement and completed our mission which because the amount of power that was dropped on us changed the entire warfront.... Admittedly our entire lance was out for the rest of the war and we had to play our B and C lances for the entire rest of the conflict. But hey A lance were legends that night, and i got to be a very happy boi as my Cappie triplets were allowed to phone home about the Feddie scum we later learned we had killed who had all also been mercs, but only after "retiring" sortly after waging numerous bloody campaigns against our beloved homeland. (GM wanted to rub in my face that Feddies killed my Cappie pilot since he assumed that my slow ass Hoplite would certainly die in the op) Atlas and Assault Mechs don't mean much when you're team controls LOS and you can influence what the enemy shoots at via understanding of your mobility and the terrain.
47:03 Looks like a Fafnir, and judging by some of german text, Heavy gauss rifles in each side torso and medium pulse lasers to back them up (probably four of them)
17:00 Ok, bit of weird franchise history. *In the beginning*, FASA (the original creators of the franchise) licensed a bunch of Macross, and Dougram, and other anime giant robot designs to incorporate into their new giant robot game: -Battledroids- Battletech. As a new game, it then got sold back to Japan, and some of the designs got *redesigned* for Japanese sensibilities, while also dodging the designs that were legal to show stateside, but not in Japan.
30:00 As for Liao... The basic jist is that Liao employs a *huuuuuuge* amount of propaganda. It's also a fair bit more stable than at first glance owing to the fact that Citizens get free education and healthcare - and deploys it pretty evenly across their worlds. Even Comstar admits that they are the state with the best education and healthcare for their citizenry. Note that Tex also mentioned you're not a Citizen until you earn it, which bouy's the relative quality of those things compared to everybody else in the Inner Sphere.
There's also all the shit with Harmony Gold also trying to claim ownership of any and all Macross art anywhere, despite doing nothing with their alleged license of that franchise...
26:30 - Sun-Tzu being good is a bit of a stretch. He did good things for the Confederation, but he also pulled a whole assload of shady crap, like abusing his power during his term as First Lord of the second Star League to retake the St Ives Compact with SLDF units, and allying with the later-mentioned Katherine Steiner-Davion to really cause problems later.
I know it's probably going to be another long series, but I strongly suggest you start the Mackie video. Now that you have a basic background of the Great Houses and how they operate, you can now get an idea of the beginnings of the first battlemech and what crazy events happened that set the stage for its creation. Great commentary.
![เจ็บที่ยังฮัก - ม่อน วรวิทย์ [ Official Mv ] จอนนี่มิวสิค](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KALIGSRSjFs/mqdefault.jpg)
The "Free State of Van Zandt" is the planet Van Zandt, home to unruly individuals that pissed off ComStar so much that ComStar both removed it from interstellar maps and mined the Zenith and Nadir jump points. I love these guys. (the people of Van Zandt, not ComStar)
Also named after a county in Texas that figured during the Civil War if Texas could leave the Union they could leave Texas and tried to do it both during and then after the war.
@@nibblitman So basically the less succesful texan mini-me version of West Virginia.
Essentially it's a Texas town in space.
"Dick lasers"
Yeah the Mackie, the first Battlemech, Tex has a video on that. It is worth the view.
On the subject of Liao:
That family, hell that realm, is a mixed bag of "oh okay party on" and "someone give granpa the anti psychotic medicine please!" Sun Tzu Liao, the Chancellor around the time of that video, is VERY careful not to dip into crazy town. His grandfather, Maximillian, went insane because of Hanse Davion. His mother, Romano, literally placed a hit squad on her sister who returned the favor, via laser bolts.
When confronting his aunt over who owns the throne now, she pretty much told him "You keep it, don't go nuts and I won't have to shoot you. Don't come after my kids, or THEY'LL have to shoot you. Peace out".
So now you have this guy sitting on the Celestial Throne, trying to keep any and all crazy moments in check all while his sister thinks she's the embodiment of Kali the death Goddess. Have fun with that.
On the subject of the Free Worlds League.
Death to Marik, they killed Marik, Glory to Marik
They are the one House I would suggest to people who don't want tot be mercenaries but do want a faction to be in for the Inner Sphere.
Yes their economy is strong, but also wildly unregulated sometimes.
Yes their religious tolerance is right up there with the Federated Suns, but their cultural differences also have caused civil wars.
Yes they've had plenty of civil wars, but they'll also hold back on punching their brethren to go across the street and kick the Lyrans or the Confederation in the teeth at times, all while having their brothers and sisters either help or hurt the cause.
It is a wonderful collective of mad lads and lasses who fist fight at a family picnic.
On the subject of Katherine Steiner-Davion and "What did she do?!"
Can I just smugly smile and say with a gallows humor tone, "She did flower arrangements".
:Flower Arrangements:....happy Mother's Day folks!
Sun Tzu Liao was or is probably the last sane Capellan leader since Aleisha Liao who forwarded the Ares Convention to the Great Houses. Then she biffs it and the next guy tries to hit the Tuarians with the 500,000 kiloton stick.
@@KaarosAleri Just say 500 megatons.
It's got a dong turret!
Those dick lasers are the origin of the PPC - because this is the PP, C!
"They're actual King Arthur's Court" As if them naming their capitol world New Avalon wasn't a big enough clue about how they see themselves
Heck, from what I understand, New Avalon was itself a planet-sized theme park based around Arthurian Mythology, back in the days of the Terran Alliance.
@@TallboyDave Come for the history stay for the planetwide LARPing sessions!
@@KaarosAleri It's all fun and games until one day you wake up and realize you're living an unironic recreation of The War Of The Roses.
yeah that always seemed a bit on the nose to me too
58:00 So, when you commit Seppuku you always have a guy standing over you with a sword, because he is the guy who actually kills you. The dying party, will stab themselves with the dagger, drawing it across their body, to open up their abdomen. This is excruciatingly painful and will kill you EVENTUALLY, but not for some considerable time. Its more a show of your willingness to put yourself through such pain and redeem your honour and when you can't take said pain any more, you give the signal to the guy with the sword, who beheads you and puts you out of your misery
Partly right. The part of cutting yourself open starts with a horizontal cut across the abdomen, then a turn to vertical up under the ribcage. The vertical cut is called something like an 'honor cut', and when the witness/assistant see's that cut, THEN he takes your head to put you out of your misery. If you do not make the vertical cut, thus reclaiming your honor, he'll just leave you to bleed out in agony.
In Japan people still commit seppuku as a form of suicide, there is a reason you had a man to give you mercy as you may suffer in agony for hours.
And I’m not sure if it was common practice or something that happened occasionally but there were times where a third guy would be off to the side in full battle gear just in case you decided “f this I’m going to make a fight of it”. If it did happen I’m assuming it would be for high ranking prisoners that can’t be ransomed or anything like that (a sort of “we have no use for you so we’ll give you the option to die honourably”)
The 'mech at 47:06 is a _Fafnir_ assault mech... infamous for hauling around two _HEAVY_ Gauss Rifles (basically gauss rifles on steroids) in the left and right torsos.
Also, Duncan Fisher is a canon immigrant from _a videogame_ of all things (and Battletech, as a franchise, doesn't canonize videogames all that much). Everyone loved his bit in Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries that they canonized him as a character.
Katherine Steiner-Davion is considered the reason House Davion and House Steiner's attempted to make one single government with the strengths of both and weaknesses of neither ended in a brutal civil war before they finished annihilating the Capellans and took over the inner sphere with a Star League 2.0.
Some think it was Comstar that helped set up the civil war for they didn't like the houses united to make a new Star League, and were pissed House Davion and Steiner caught on their actions and were starting a counter-intelligence against them. Along with House Kurita. And I won't say any more than it is likely aided Katherine in the background, but it was Katherine's fault.
Regardless of who was responsible (probably Katherine alone), the Fedcom Civil War was messed up, and Katherine was regarded as the main antagonist in her attempted coup.
And worse yet the Fed-Com Civil war was the distraction that enabled the Blakists to kick off the Jihad (which technically started before the Fed-Com civil war ended). And don't forget plotting with the Capellans that ultimately caused Star League 2.0 to fall apart faster than the League of Nations. So Katrina is frequently blamed for sinking the inner sphere back into the Dark Ages (which really weren't that dark actually and more of a silver age rebuilding period)
Yup, she borrowed a few pages from Amaris’ book and turned the Federated Commonwealth into a full on police state while her big brother was away kicking clan Smoke Jaguar’s butt and stopping the clan invasion for good.
@@liljenborg2517 I look forward to seeing TEX cover Operation Bulldog
Katherine Steiner-Davion also preferred being called Katrina Steiner-Davion because THE BITCH was banking off her absolutely adored Grandmother's name.
Kathrine Steiner-Davion is the main reason why there was the civil war.
There was no implication that Comstar was part of the plan to separate the two states mainly because Frederick Steiner/ Anastasius Focht was the head of Comguards at the time. Not to mention that Myndo Waterly tried to take over the Inner Sphere with Operation SCORPION only to be shot by Focht himself. So...it had little to no issue.
If you're assuming that Comstar had a hand in killing Arthur Steiner-Davion, I think if that was the case Victor would have caught wind and the current Primus would have had their head evacuated before the plan could ever put in place.
Kathrine pretty much was a schemer all her life, she was the 2nd child and her elder brother was seen as a man of the people, a MechWarrior's warrior (whom Kathrine never bothered to put time in the martial side of her training). Hence the bitter resentment, Arthur's death is forever a mystery and I do not take Ray Arrastia notes as an account because you dont throw away a good potential character like Arthur as some cyborg drone.
41:03 No, its not a clan Casino, its a Clanner IN a casino, a Jade Falcon elemental specifically by the looks of it and thus that pick pocket evidently has a Death Wish
perhaps just looking to win a Darwin Award... I'd say he is a strong contender...
Probably a friend of Tex's wife
@@robert8659 Tex' Ex is a Ghost Bear elemental. She'd of probably decked the guy sooner than look at him.
@@tanall5959 I know that, it is what they 'generally' do. But Tex lives in a weird social circle.
Or that Falcon is about to get a bondsman with a fascinating backstory.
To be fair to Steiner, it was actually Hanse Davion who declared war on the Cappellans on his wedding day, Melissa Steiner was just his bride.
Their eldest child was Victor Steiner-Davion, who inherited the Federated Commonwealth (the union of the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth) when his parents died. His sister stole the Lyran half away while he was busy fighting against the Clans in the Great Refusal, and ignited the FedCom Civil War, for which she was rewarded by getting thrown out of Lyran space, hunted down, and eventually made a bondswoman by Khan Vlad Ward of Clan Wolf.
"Is that a griffon?"
Nooo, that's the new sculpt of the Battlemaster. Also that gundum knockoff is from the Japanese version of battletech. They have a lot of alternatives sculpts and a few mechs that never got official sculpts in the west or even appear in a tech manual, I think you could find them in the magazines and that's about it. They're not exactly unseen (that term belongs to mechs caught up in Harmony Gold's bullshit), but it's questionable if they're cannon or not.
"What is that?"
**Sigh** it's a Centurion. AC 10, LRM 10, med lasers X 2, unless your last name is Alard-Liao, in which case you shoehorn an AC 20, or gauss rifle into the arm.
"I'm guessing that's an Awesome?"
Zeus.
In regards to the 'Mech you called the Unseen... funny story. The reason why they were called the Unseen is because the earliest Battlemech designs used designs from Macross and several other anime that they licensed, only for another company to contest the claim to the license. When Battletech was brought to Japan, all the Unseen were given completely new looks so not to be confused with existing series that used those designs.
Age tuum negotium: 'Mind your own business'
49:37 Katherine Steiner-Davion. AKA Katrina Steiner-Davion. AKA 'Auntie Katrina'. AKA 'That lady that went off her meds and started the FedCom Civil War'.
AKA, Cercei Lannister but even crazier
Or, as old-school BTers called her at the time: Krazy Kat.
49:43 Yep, Katherine Steiner-Davion was the ruler of the Federated Commonwealth (the union of the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth). She caused the FedCom civil war, because she thought the Davions became way too overbearing (she wasn't wrong, but she still causes a horrific war through excessive dickery on her part). This is not a Tex spoiler since he didn't touch the FedCom era yet and it might take a few years before he comes to that point.
Well to be fair....House Steiner's way of winning was throwing bodies at their enemies until they ran out of bullets or got bored....or some low level commander was smart enough to supersede their social general and score them a victory.
Kathrine Steiner and Melissa Steiner-Davion were actually disliked heavily by the nobility. Peter Steiner Davion who took over after Kathrine was 'rescued' by Vlad Ward was disliked partly because the Generals and Nobility thought he was a puppet for Victor...and even Adam Steiner who was by far the most celebrated Archon (next to his Great Aunt and Aunt) was disliked by said nobility and social generals for actually doing what the Feds do....place people of competence into positions of power.
Katrina killed her mother for power, then placated to the Steiner Nobility, Nondi and social generals to keep her power at the cost of the people. Its funny, under Davion rule (mainly Hanse and Victors) the Steiner military was far stronger, their economy was far better and tech base was rapidly growing. Its only the Steiner nobles who saw them as 'stuffy' because they couldn't create these enclaves of power.
@@everyonethinksyoureadeathm5773 She also threw in with Vlad Ward of Clan Wolf, for s3ggs!
@@douglasbaker4562 I agree with Phelan on this instance, that he should have cored his cockpit when he had the chance.
@@everyonethinksyoureadeathm5773 thanks for the summary. it was well done. It also points out a plot point of how unstable Steiner society is.
@@everyonethinksyoureadeathm5773 So, she's basically the Battletech version of Cersi Lannister?
All of the "Era's" which came after the "Clan Invasion" happened mostly because of the IP changing hands and them (the new owners) wanting to make the setting "Bigger and more epic". In other words they each were trying to do a reset of the IP by larger and larger amounts of "Power Creep" trying to make everything before unplayable in the game. Also the stories seemed to get weirder and weirder.
This is why for so many people/fans of the game and setting, the timeline kind of stops shortly after the "Battle of Tukayyid". Because shit started getting too weird, even for us nerds... and that is kind of saying something.
12:05 it’s a Wolverine medium mech
17:02 it’s the Japanese version of battletech, the mechs were redesigned to be super 80s anime mecha style
Think that 17:02 mech is the Phoenix Hawk LAM variant to be precise. Pretty much the VF-1 Valkyrie.
I think that one at 17:02 is some kind of LAM the head looks like it really wants to be a fighter jet.
It's actually the Japanese Shadowhawk. The original Unseens were derived from Macross, Crusher Joe and Dougram. Obviously they couldn't use them in Japan so they got the art studio who did Macross to design new versions for the Japanese edition and that is what we got
About katherine steiner-davion she is basically amaris if he was a woman that should tell you enought about her.
You're assuming that the very _image_ is survivable...
If you want Solaris matches narrated by Duncan Fisher, you're in luck. The character started as the commentator for the Solaris matches in MechWarrior 4 mercenaries which is now freeware and is still a good game.
Great game, the mekpaks are vital tho. Also mech 2 is great
he's now a VA in the more recent Solaris 7 dlc in MW5
The Kurita mech is a Hatamoto-Chi. A highly modyfied and upgraded Charger.
The red kurita mech is a No_Dachi. A heavy with an ER-PPC, @ MRM-20, and a SWORD!!!!!!!!!!
And unlike the Charger it's actually good.
About the Seppuku image when talking about Raselhauge... The guy behind the warrior committing seppuku - the one with the sword - he is there to take the warrior's head /after/ he does the act, but before he can further dishonor his family by showing pain. That's a normal part of the tradition of seppuku. The guy with the gun is in case he changes his mind, since he would otherwise face capital punishment.
Of the name of worlds - Sarna has been on BattleTech's books for far longer than the website has existed, and was fittingly a Star League data repository. Van Zandt is also an official world. It is in the periphery, near the Magistracy of Canopus and the Taurian Concordat. The same general region as the HBS BattleTech game takes place.
In the lead up to that game's release, the crew of Hairbrained Schemes and the actors from the studio Dead Gentlemen Presents did a series of live action role-play sessions on Hyper RPG on Twitch. Those sessions are here on TH-cam on HyperRPG's channel. I highly recommend them. They play with 3D printed 'Mechs about 6" tall, and actually drill them for damage, and repairs between sessions are actual repairs with epoxy putty... Crazy stuff, and lots of fun!
I miss DFA it was so fun! it did introduce me to Goobers515 as Jackel. he has a twitch stream and does some interesting and weird stuff!
The "head" is where all the cockpits on humanoid mechs are. When you consider that the engine is a mico-sun, and the source of all the heat. You want to be about as far from it as you can safely get. Besides, it'd be very hard to eject from somewhere further into the mech, even if it meant better armor for you.
You have a few mechs that have torso cockpits, notably the Wild Fire and Great Turtle, Also, the few mechs that use interface cockpits like the Skinwalker have their cockpit in the torso.
In fact, the Federated Suns official languaje is french. Also the Federated Marches aren't (mostly) conquered territories, the names of the frontier Marches come from the neighbours.
"Marik is the nerd house!"
... look up 'Kriegspiel' historically, and how it connected to the Prussian military. You will understand how this is derived from an understanding of the history of wargaming :)
The clip is from the "Hired Steel" series. Which I am forlornly awaiting more of.
Also, I am enough of a weaboo that it's either mechs from Robotech or Kurita, all the way, every day.
Also, commentary on the credits and Duncan's monolog!
The Capellens are not stable. They are losing territory and are only surviving as a state due to the efficiency of their core worlds near Sian. The clan invasion has stopped their collapse. For now...
Post Clan Invasion the Capellans went on the upswing and managed to level some pretty innovative technology to get an advantage. By the 3150s they're the same size as the FWL and probably the best positioned of the lot, though there's an awful lot of shoes dropping.
@@phantam23 That is interesting! I pulled up a "modern" map and it practically made my eyes water. Just what was the canonical reason for it other than the authors wanted it this way?
@@robert8659 A pretty big number of reasons. The Capellans and Leaguers were the least affected by the Clan Invasion, what with them being on the other side of the sphere. They also had a strong and sane leader in the form of Sun Tzu Liao, who forged a strong alliance with the Canopians (and a short lived one with the Taurians). The Lyrans and Feddies had a civil war that weakened them and the Dracs were hit the hardest by the Clans. This gave Capellans the room to focus on R&D, iterating on Stealth tech, and pioneering Plasma weapons. They managed to hold civil relations with Marik for a decent time, leaving them only fighting on one front, and at one point the Free Worlds League flat out got dissolved and returned to being a bunch of independent nations (just another tuesday in the league).
Meanwhile the Capellans just kept moving forwards, with the other nations catching up over time.
@@phantam23 Forgive me, but wasn't it part of the concord for fighting the clans that the houses would refrain from taking worlds? So how did Capella get bigger? Otherwise Davion just pulls back the troops and keep on keeping on.
@@robert8659 From what I recall? They started fighting back once the FedCom Civil War caused an issue, and a lot of gains happened during the fall of the Republic during that era - in fact they were pressuring Republic borders for some time during the 'Dark Ages' era. (The Clix game had them be the first House to start blatantly making trouble instead of having a faction doing it "for them" like Kurita, Steiner, and Davion did...)
5:38 It is actually more surprising that Cairo hasn't grown any further than it is today in that shot. If you have been there, you'll know what i mean. But for those who don't, let me tell you: If you pan but one screen-width to the right from this very perspective today, you'd see the houses of Cairo's suburbs. the Sphinx and the pyramids are quite literally on the edge of the city today (or to be fair about18-ish years ago when I was there anyway) heck, I wouldn't be surprised if the mechs you see there belonged to Cairo's police department - because back then they were already rocking MPs and f*in assault rifles!
47:00 This, my friend, is a Fafnir - one of my favourites as Battlemechs go. And what you thought to be a PPC is in actuality a lot worse than that. What you are looking at right there are twin Heavy Gauss Rifles, which while short-range deal damage on par with or even slightly above what an AC-20 can do. Each. And since it is a gauss weapon, it means heat-buildup is essentially non-existant. Heavy Gauss are SO potent, that they risk knocking the shooting mech over by sheer recoil. And keep in mind, we are talking a 100-ton behemoth here...
Dangit arier. I never thought of the combine's pillars that way, but I knew what you were going to say the moment you paused and now I can't get it out of my head.
I'm holding an anonymous petition to rename The 5 Pillars to The 5 Bad Dragons.
The difference between steiners and prussian empire is that the prussian empire had a scary competent army. Just look up some of the YT documentaries about the "franco prussian war" like "glory and defeat" here on YT to see what an absolute ass kicking it was and is a prime example of a tukayyid level of asskicking that a well disciplined and trained force enacted against a technologically superior enemy who had nearly every advantage
I've seen a decent argument that the Lyrans are more like Austria-Hungary in its prime. Some distinct internal cultural divisions, military that looks stupidly powerful on paper yet has some severe internal issues, but also an ability to bounce back from getting beat up like its nothing, a huge economic base and a mostly defensively and conservative-oriented foreign policy that gets interrupted by the odd high noble/general getting a bee in his bonnet or an outside power seriously pissing them off.
Van Zant is from the later tex talks videos. On that note make sure to watch the Mackie and the ones that come after it in order as they are more interconnected than the previous lectures. Not just the story elements and the running jokes. Some of the actual lecture stuff really needs to be viewed in order.
He still has not witnessed the majesty that is the Royal Cameron Mullet!
@@tanall5959 Yeah. 😄
Personally I actually don't think Jacob looks half bad. Not noble and statuesque like Ian of course but not all that bad.
57:30 This isn't the first time the Draconis Combine has had to deal with 'Ronin'. Back in the early Star League era, a bunch of their samurai mechwarriors went rogue over joining Star League and a following edict from Michael Cameron II that restricted the house military sizes (in favour of the SLDF of course). These rogue mechwarriors started calling themselves Ronin and picking fights with SLDF garrisons in what became the First Hidden War. The SLDF in response, started the Gunslinger program to give the Ronin the honourable death in combat they were after. (The Coordinator in the meantime said the Ronin were beyond his authority, and probably enjoyed the show). Those Ronin who survived actually ended up becoming part of the SLDF and many served as instructors for the Gunslinger program.
EDIT: The guy with the sword is to behead him after he disembowls himself. It's part of the execution so that he doesn't lie there screaming, bleeding all over everything, and dying a slower death than necessary.
4:40 The series is called Hired Steel.
Had to go look for it once I knew it was a thing.
Most mechs, if I'm not mistaken at least with bipedal models, have the cockpits in the head. Others like the Marauder and the Locust, it's fairly easy to see where the cockpit is. They don't use cameras in many cases to pilot mechs, they have reinforced glass like we have on military aircraft today, just way more advanced, because sensors and cameras can be damaged, the mk. I eyeball can't, unless you get blasted in the face, in which case you're probably dead anyway. Also, Katherine Steiner-Davion... yeah, diss track might actually be an understatement for what she needs.
The 'mech at 16:54 is a Studio Nue (yes, _THAT_ Studio Nue) redesign of the Shadowhawk, if my memory is correct. FASA had contracted Studio Nue to import Battletech into Japan... alongside some _juicy_ exclusive design rights for some Macross mecha like the Rifleman...
... but Harmony Gold quite literally canned that via their lawsuit shenanigans.
Another bit to that ComStar and Rasalhague deal that was missed, but interesting in its implications is that ComStar didn't just ask Kurita to give it up for the sake of stability in the inner sphere necessarily...
... they BRIBED Kurita to do it, giving them a Lostech Cache that ended up proving pivotal to upgrading their war industry just in time to score two of the biggest (and first) victories against the Clan Invasion, at Wolcott and at Luthien.
Thing about the FWL is really that, except for one or two novels, there really wasn't anything sphere-shaking that happened there pre-Clan invasion, except for two biggies: one side of the civil war between Janos and Anton Marik held hostage and eventually executed a group of the Wolf's Dragoons, which kinda pissed them off, and the Gray Death Legion (despite ComStar shenanigans) found a Star League database and proceeded to distribute it to all the Successor States, which both really pissed ComStar off, and started to reverse centuries of technological backsliding.
The Japanese editions of Battletech had different mechs because of licensing issues. There were no gundam mecha in the game, a lot of the mechs in this version were redesigned by Shoji Kawamori, famous for his mech work in Macross.
Well, Arier, if you're wondering about the Draconis Combine's "Bureau of Substitution", it's main job is.... weird; basically it oversees the shuffling of DCMS (Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery) personnel between units- specifically when they're being transferred without being promoted; best way I can describe it is that, if some poor schmuck of a trooper gets shuffled off to some backwater posting to get them out of sight and out of mind, it's by the oversight of the Bureau of Substitution.
Duncan Fisher is a character from MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries. Tex just got the voice actor to revive the role
Kathrine steiner Davion deposed Victor. Took over the whole fedcom. Killed her mother, brother, oldest daughter of therodore kurita. Fedcom civilwar was her vs. Victor.
Should note on the oldest daughter, that was Victor's girlfriend. Also her death is what lead to him breaking down and finally saying a civil war is a good thing.
"Age Tuum Negotium" = rough translation - "Mind you own business"
"Mind your business" was also Benjamin Franklin's suggestion for what should have been written on our money.
Going that the Milky Way is shaped like a misshaped Cape Cod potato chip, the 3D representation of the Inner Sphere would be VERY VERRYYYYYYYYYYYYYY interesting.
27:00 Capellan actually don't interfere with religion freedom... at the start.
After the Succession Wars begin, House Liao started to supported or suppress certain religions for their own agenda. But still, some local government will choose to not suppress local religions in order to gain population's support. So it's entirely possible to see Christian in the Confederation.
28:55 For a good person in House Liao, you can look up Aleisha Liao (aka. the one whom make Ares Conventions into reality) on Sarna.
If you like the Steiner animation watch "STEINER SCOUT SQUAD IN: THE LAST PARADE"!
38: 19. This, is a Mackie, the original battlemech. You'de know this if you stuck to the playlist ;)
THERE'S A PLAYLIST!!?
😁
@@Airier Yes, you even said you would stick by it when you watched the Blackjack Video (which was originally placed between the star league civil war two-parter and the primer to the clans) before you watched the fall of star league videos even as the comments were screaming at you to watch the two fall videos first. Next in line, after the clan primer, is the Mackie video, then the rifleman, marauder and lastly, Warhammer.
Yes please stick to the order from now on. The next four videos are going to be a bit confusing if you watch them out of order.
Airier, Seppuku is supposed to be done with two people, one for the person that is cutting his guts open, and the other to cut off his head to end it quickly and take it to be buried so the guy's enemies have no trophy to claim.
The guy with the gun is there to make sure they do, probably as a third-party witness.
Also, I think it's applied the lectures are set before the Dark Ages, for the reason they call it the dark age is well the HMG FTL communication and Comstar cease to exist is why it is called the Dark Age. As in the last remnant of the Star League and most advanced technology was destroyed.
That Atlas image is Devlin Stone's ride during Operation SCOUR. An offensive against Word of Blake.
that's an Atlas II known as Phantom he would use it to destroy the last remnants of the Word of Blake left on Terra
The mech at 11:42 is just a Wolverine, you've seen it plenty. That mech you think is an unseen is I believe the Japanese version of the Battlemaster.
When they brought Battletech to Japan they redesigned everything and changed up the lore a bit so that it would better appeal to the Japanese.
I hate Davion due to the universe wanting you to love them, Davion are a bunch of holier than thou dickheads who only think they're better than everyone else.
The mech at 38:30 is a Mackie, as you know it's the first Battlemech.
I think they also redesigned the Japanese battletech mechs because a lot of the Unseen would be easily recognized as Macross and Dougram and Crusher Joe mecha. So they just wanted to avoid that entire hairball.
That said, I do like some of the redone designs from that series. Had a very nice functional but complicated feel to them.
@@Kalebfenoir the Japanese Rifleman is pretty damned interesting.
The Mackie, back when crotch lasers were cool... Also, it's a Japanese shadow hawk, not a battlemaster
@@Jake9066 yeah the Japanese Battlemaster had like, headfrills and stuff. Wonder if the same team that designed then did the mecha for Macross 7, because I always got serious Varauta vibes from the designs.
The cover art for Japanese BT is glorious though. Damn. Just found that out today.
Davions are also hyper-imperialistic and start wars just because they like some free real estate. While I do appreciate their distaste for war crimes, the setup as "The Good Guys™" always left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm glad the newer lore is a bit more nuanced. For me, every one of the Great Houses is morally grey at best.
The song playing during House Liao is a remix version of the theme from Papers, Please.
About the seppuku thing: its depicted here the correct way: the guy knives open his own gut, and then an assistant lops off the head immediately after so death comes quick and the guy doesn suffer an agonisingly long death and/or have time to regret his action and overall make the death undignified
4:00 Look up the Civil War History of Van Zandt, TX. It will explain SO MUCH.
38:00 That is a Mackie. The next mech you will be learning about from Professor Tex.
50:30 All I will say is look at her name, look at the map from teh Battle of Tuukiad, and draw what conclusions you may.
54:20 The Last Parade premiered in the Warhammer video, but can be watched separately. It's what you are seeing part of here, in fact...
House kurita: you dishonor fried chicken!!!!
The clans are fascinating. One of the best written sci-fi villains / anti-hero. Fixing some problems and creating a lot of new ones. Consequences and exodus of a veteran military force, trying to create a new society. What could go wrong?
1. On King Arthur, one of the Mariks actually had one of his guys read what I assume to be an original copy of "Le Morte D'Arthur" to learn about lofty knights.
2. I've looked before and I haven't found a 3D map of the Inner Sphere. As far as I know, one doesn't exist, and if it does, no way it's an official thing; fan created most likely.
An.... original copy!? Wow! That's...... truly priceless.
Ahh yes, Ideal War. Where Fako Marik sends a Knight of King Arthur to space Nam so that they can hit space Nuke Laden, his traitorous secessionist allies and the definitely not religious phone company with the Phoenixhawk o' justice and honor! This is also the book where "Comstar" calls losses as "Deficit" and "Profit". A loss and a win as Fako Marik puts.
Hello Airier.
At 9:00, that is not a Shadow Hawk, but instead, a Wolverine. And given the 'actual' size of Mechs, the pilot in the cockpit is 'to scale'.
Yes. It's finally here. So glad to see this and looking forward to the Mackie next.
I think he did use the color shark tooth atlas and Cicada picture before, it's just been a while.
Well yeah, the desire for power, resources, and getting one up on your longtime enemy/rival neighbor, but also how Amaris and Kerensky both showed not only seemingly impossible feats scheming and war fighting, but that ruling families were once more very much in danger during total war. Add on the removal of Star League to keep the peace, and now there was the idea that there was both much more to gain AND much more to loose in those turbulent times that were between a status quo.
Don't know where Van Zandt is, but it is where Tex' character is currently living and working. Probably deep periphery, I'm guessing either by Taurian and Lyran space.
That would be a clip from Hired Steel where Tex plays a lance leader.
There are two main periods where the mechs fighting on Terra would be. The final years of the Amaris Civil War, or the efforts to free Tera from the Word Of Blake. The latter notably debuted the first working Superheavy weight class battlemech, the Omega. Also a submersible class that was a mobile base that could serve as a dropship killer. The Wyrm. Oh, and then the refurbished Rattlers.
The middle card is probably the Com Guard post Tukayid, pre Jihaad.
He mentioned radioactive ash.
That's probably an occupying force in the picture too, so it's not necessarily even their statue.
I like to think that somewhere in the Draconis Combine there are a bunch of dudes trying to be Southern Genteel culinarians of authentic pre FTL Japanese cuisine. Just a whole lot of historical, commercial, and cultural wires that got crossed.
Given how many KFCs my folks saw on a recent trip in Europe, and how few we saw on some more recent long drives in the Sates, KFC generally seems to be focusing more on foreign markets than domestic ones.
Look up the Berserker if you're searching for a melee mech.
Mechs are usually piloted from the head, but the transparent canopy here is a bit odd.
That mech with the wicked grin is an Akuma. Made as an in-universe Atlas imitator. It was commissioned by the Draconis Combine to be a cheaper domestic alternative to the Atlas. It is cheaper, but only by 108,520 C-bills. For a mech that costs over 9.5 million C-Bills. It has a..... varied arsenal.
The French and English have more in common than they care to admit.
I think the marches next to their neighbors were named based on how they shared a border with more than whose flag used to fly there, but the maps do seem to imply that the Federated Suns have taken bites out of the Capellan Confederation over the decades and centuries.
That's a centurion (on a volcanic world). Solid medium mech.
I think it's a Zeus.
The inner sphere came up with their own battle armor designs after the Clans showed up.
As far as I know, the Capellans don't try to use lobotomy as a tool to keep people in line, but they are a police state, so I imagine that the serfs are spied on endlessly with there being an ever present implied threat of being black bagged in the night.
I've heard Sun Tzu Liao is usually a bit of a Gary Stu. Can't confirm.
Hearing how history nerdage founded the FWL is charming.
That mech is a Mackie. The first of the Battlemechs. Very crude, but.... you'll see. It's an effective anti-vehicle/infantry mounting position.
Not a clanner casino, but a clanner in a casino. That tattoo is the only thing in the picture which screams clanner.
The FWL can apparently be frequently divided internally, but funny thing about attacking a bunch of people who usually attack each other. Sometimes they get really ticked off at someone butting in on the family feuding, and will agree to throw you out first, saving their squabbles for when there isn't a common threat.
46:29 Those are Fafnirs. Each is armed with two HEAVY. GAUSS. RIFLES. along with two ER medium lasers and a medium pulse laser.
I'd say eve of WWI Germany. Eve of German unification Prussia was actually very well led.
I have no doubt we'll get to Kathrine in time. She played a very PITVOTal role in events. I shall refrain from saying what I know* about her and her actions, but I look forward to when Tex gets to covering her.
Solaris VII is a planet that invites people from all over to come take a shot at being a star mech jock gladiator in the arenas. As such, I imagine there are a lot of different types from a lot of different places there. This would certainly explain the contrasting architecture.
From what I understand, the Duncan Fisher character has been Solaris fight commentator since Mechwarrior 4. So that was already a thing. Your character could enter fights, and he'd be the announcer/commentator.
The scout squad animatic is called the Last Parade. It premiered in the credits of the Warhammer video.
I'd be curious to see a breakdown of what the asset differences between the Free Rasalhague Republic (the least of the Successor States) and the Taurian Concordat (generally the grandest of the Periphery States.)
I mean, while they don't go to war, the modern militaries of the once Scandinavian regions are not to be messed with unless you have a darn good reason. At least from everything I've heard about their on paper capabilities.
I mean, there was an attempted military coup by the most diehard Japanese militarists in the final days of WWII to keep Japan from surrendering. Keep in mind, this was after the second atomic strike. And the firebombing. And the wrecking of their navy. And their failures in China. And Russia maybe considering a joint invasion. So I totally believe Kurita had to lay down the law on some Samurai mech jocks who didn't like giving up worlds for peace.
Remember, the Combine is a heavily militaristic society whose warriors are fed manifest destiny type propaganda. They see their purpose as making war and taking land. To deny them that makes them behave extra irrationally.
The guy with the Katana behind you is a traditional part of the ritual. You hwk your belly, and before your death becomes really undignified, the guy behind you is supposed to hwk your head in one swing. If he messes up, then he's potentially next in line after you're done. The spec ops guy is presumably acting as supervision to make sure you don't try anything funny.
Tex' character is probably at least a few years past 3067, since he mentions that maps after it get fuzzy. We'll see.
I've seen it joked that the Free Worlds League fighting other Inner Sphere powers is like Verdun, while the Free Worlds League fighting in among itself is like the Expendables, and as a Marik fan, it's far from incorrect. "Welcome to the Free Worlds League, please let us take your coat and once we're finished kicking the shit out of each other we'll be right with you."
Glory to Marik!
25:18 Out in Clan space, you can find the planet "Fasa."
The trick with galactic maps is that, across such a large scale, galaxies *are* almost two dimensional.
16:55 that is a rare sight of the Japanese version of the Shadow Hawk. You see, when BattleTech was made it licensed a bunch of their designs (the future unseen) from various Japanese animes and mangas. This wasn't really a problem in America due to those series being almost unheard of (until Harmony Gold decided to ruin the fun), but when BattleTech was imported to Japan, this wasn't going to fly.
To allow the series to be sold, Studio Nue (the ones behind the Macross series art, or Robotech as the USA knows it) purchased the rights and redrew all of the art to allow the series to sell without lawsuits. If you look up Japanese BattleTech art you can find a different take on the series that is rather interesting.
I recommend looking at the various archives of JBT artwork, it's interesting seeing how a different culture does the art differently.
And all this because of how damn scary Japanese copyright lawyers are.
@@gozillabk The whole fiasco was actually a big thing for international copyright laws. The impact of FASA vs Harmony Gold vs Hasbro vs (various other minor players) can still be felt today in writing of those laws.
The mech with the german writing is a Fafnir. 2 Heavy gauss that is very mean and extremely deadly.
at least if you make the mistake of getting close to it... It can still hurt you at range, but get close and you get stomped.
25:57 It's weird seeing planets called Ipswitch and Goodna, both of which I have lived in. Didn't really expect two towns west of Brisbane to feature in the Battletech universe. And it's disconcerting that they exist in Capellan space.
35:13 Now you know why I go in for Free Worlds League.
32:09 That's Thomas Marik, he's one of the better captain generals of the free world's league, he got those scars from a bomb going off that killed his brother and father...or at least that's the *_Record corrected, Praise Blake_* anyway's he's a pragmatic idealist.
KFC and Japanese Christmas. Remember, Japan isn't a majority-christian nation so public celebration of Christmas there is a relatively new thing. The tradition of a large feast for extended family is something usually only very wealthy households could pull-off not just due to expense but due to everyone living in shoebox apartments without a kitchen big enough to make such a meal. In this environment the KFC 'Bucket' suddenly makes perfect sense.
1:01:02 Airier disappointed in his descendant.
58:15 the man standing over the samurai committing seppuku is the second and he is there to finish the ritual. He will cut the samurais head off after the belly was cut, to ensure the samurai did not suffer a loss of honor by bleeding out in an undignified manner. The position of second was on of honor, and the second was nominated by the warrior commiting seppuku to perform this act. In the lore Jamie Wolf (the leader of wolfs dragoons) was nominated as the second for Minobu Tetsuhara. Wolf was apalled by this as Tetsuhara was a close friend. Nonetheless Wolf fulfilled his role and gave Minobu am honorable death. He then, in fury walked into the wedding of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner (they declared war in the same afternoon as the wedding) and threw Minobu's swords at the feet of the head of the Draconis Combine, blaming him personally for the circumstances of Minobu's dishonor and ritual suicide. He declared a blood feud between the Wolfs Dragoons and the entire Draconis Combine and the dragoons spent the entire 4th succession war (started by Hanse Davion at the wedding later that afternoon... with a dinner plate) kicking Kurita ass and taking dragon names everywhere they went.
It's about time someone reacted to this damn video
46:45: That list in german is an incomplete loadout of a Fafnir. 2 Heavy Gauss Rifles, ammo for Heavy Gauss, medium pulse laser, Guardian ECM, CASE.
46:58
I read here:
2 Heavy Gauss-Rifles (I think that Mech is a Templar, these hit HARD, but medicore range. Fun to use close range)
Ammo for Heavy Gauss
Medium Pulslaser
Guardian ECM
CASE-protection
Fafnir actually. 100 tons of pure, unadulterated Lyran rage. The Templar by comparison is only 85 tons hauling a standard Gauss rifle, Large pulse laser, Medium pulse laser, 2 Extended Range Medium lasers, and a Streak SRM4, with 16.5 tons of armor compared to the Fafnir's 19.5 tons.
It's a Fafnir 100 ton mech
@@BlueLightning12
Templar is also an IS omni.
They also have a Templar III.
Don't know why they skipped the Templar II.
50:16 - meet Katherine Steiner-Davion. The woman who:
Usurped the throne of the Federaded commonwealth from Archon-Prince Victor Steiner-Davion
Broke the Federated Commonwealth
Assassinated her own mother
Assassinated Vitcor's lover (Omi Kurita)
Likely arranged the desth of her brother Arthur
Ignited the frdcom civil war (the most destructive conflict sonce the first succession war)
Was taken into the crusader Wolves by Khan Vlad Ward himself
Was the genemother of Alaric Ward - the wolf who conquer terra, ended the republic of the sphere, and elevate Clam wolf to ilclan.
Yeah - she deserves her own episode.
The picture at 12:03 did have a phoenix hawk in it, but that was in the bottom right corner fighting something in the background. I think the confusing mech in the foreground was a wolverine, a 55-ton medium mech that normally is shown with that body shape, has a shoulder-mounted SRM-6 in the left torso and an AC5 in the right arm. That centerpiece mech was also about the right scale to be a wolverine, while seeing a similar picture of an atlas would probably put the guy's face in the mech's left eye.
Also, the new Rise of Rasalhague DLC has you taking the role of a mercenary commander that fought on behalf of the Free Rasalhague Republic during the Ronin War.
He’s taken a lesson or two from The homeworld video games when it comes to his images. The one with the nukes blowing everything up comes from his episode on the Mackie originally.
Also Sun Tzu Liao was just a really good chancellor he wasn’t really a good person though. In his early years he attempted to murder political rivals during training exercises in a very blatant way even though they were technically allies at that point.
Katherine Steiner-Davion basically undid the Federated Commonwealth and drove a wedge between two houses who (for the most part) were the most chill with each other (due to not sharing a boarder with ether other).
Fried chicken on Christmas? Sounds like a plan for this year☆
Also. Its Sieg Zeon. I started in Wing also, but I love Universal Century ☆
Honest Universal Century has the best writing overall.
I started with One Year War 0077
28:20: Nah, Capellan "Servitors" were basically just completely disenfranchised state-owned slaves. And, uh, yeah, this caused issues. There's a reason the Capellans' handbook on *riot control* tactics and procedures has multiple paragraphs regarding the use of *flamethrowers* in such a tactical environment. Also, their secret police makes even *Kurita* go "Whoa, that's a bit drastic, isn't it?" every once a while.
... When even Kurita is appalled... 😨
@Airier yeah the Maskirovka have absolutely no chill. Taking out an entire city block to kill a single "alleged" spy is practically standard operating procedure.
KFC on Christmas - there's a LOT of weird, relatively recent culturally specific stuff like that, really. In Poland, the Christmas Eve meal is traditionally supposed to technically be a religious fast, without red meat or poultry, just fish. And there's not really a basis for it in the Catholic Church. More than that - keeping a live carp in the bathtub and slaughtering it for Christmas Eve is considered a tradition, but it originated with the People's Republic of Poland when Poland was a soviet satellite, because of food shortage - live carp was one of the few things that were actually widely available and easy to keep for a few days. And, of course, it turned into "things were always like this and we should keep the tradition."
I'm just imagining a Polish kid who got attached to the bathtub carp just releasing it and ruining Christmas. Another odd or well INSANE one would probably be Good Friday in the Philippines. just look it up. Apparently it started as a play sometimes around the 50s and 60s and then turned into that. How it turned from play to that I have no idea but that's some dedication!
50:24 to answer a question in a way that photo spoils nothing yet explains everything: “FedCom civil war”
The guy with sword is to chop the guys head off to finish the ritual. You make three cuts on belly then head cut off. If you fail to make three cuts the head off.
57:00: Oh, it was totally ComStar doing their typical fuckery. Essentially, after kicking the Capellans to the curb in the 4th Sucession War and uniting Steiner and Davion into the FedCom, ol' Hanse Davion wanted to stomp the Draconis Combine into a rump state next. Because with the Free World's League being busy fighting each other again and the Capellans absolutely wrecked by the 4th Succession War, Kurita was the only serious threat to the FedCom left.
ComStar proceeded to pull enormous amounts of fuckery to turn the ensuing war of '31 into a meatgrinder rather than a one-sided stomp, and then played "neutral arbitrator" for a peace treaty that resulted in the Lyrans and Dracs having to release a neutral buffer state between them that would prevent the FedCom from attacking Kurita from two fronts again. They essentially dragged the Draconis Combine kicking and screaming out of getting curbstomped, all so that there was still a serious rival to the Steiner-Davions.
25:00 So those are the capitol worlds of the various Commonalities that make up the Cappellan Confederation. Sarna, is the capitol of the Sarna Commonality, Cappella is capitol of the Cappellan Commonality ect and Sian is the overall capitol of the Confederation and the traditional seat of House Liao. And naturally, the theme tune chosen for House Liao is *PAPERS PLEASE!*
That mech on a japanese issue of Battletech is Shadow Hawk. And you guessed right, it's done by same artist who did mechs for Armored Core 4. White Glint is basically Phoenix Hawk 2.0.
And no, it's not "unseen". Unseens are designs from macross (robotech), dougram and third show I always forget name of. Crusher Joe? Anyway. Japanese issue instead of unseens/reseens and non borrowed designs just got it's own looks for each mech.
The process of sepuku involves:
1) ritual suicide to cleans dishonor by slicing into your own belly first horizontally, then vertically, and
2) a ‘second’ to take off your head should you fail to complete the task, to avoid dishonoring yourself with that failure. And because the cuts themselves are an incredibly slow, painful way to die.
The guy with the gun? Probably the witness to ensure it is actually done, and (as you guessed) put a bullet through the brain pan of both should they try to escape.
27:00 Be more accurate to say the Cappellans are a mashup of Chinese and Russian, so that appears to be a Russian Orthodox cross
The Lyran social generals are legendary in their general incompetence, but they had a few actual generals who weren't all that bright either. Just look up Marshal Sharon Bryan, she is literally the original Admiral Holdo, (I wouldn't be surprised if she was the inspiration for the latter.) and a Katherine simp of the worst kind. I could go into how badly she underestimated the clans, but her entry on Sarna describes her epic failure FAR better than I ever could.
58:06 the guy on the floor is going to stab himself, then the guy with the sword is gonna help him along. The gun dude is just there as a witness.
4:20 Mind your buisness. That is both a threat to stay out of the Perhipery, and a translation of the Van Zandt seal. *Pumps shotgun* And I meant that first thing.
There is a good reason why so many Taurian mech variants are armed with LB-X Autocannons
I mean the First War of the big Succ was started because Minorou Kurita woke up one morning and decided he alone was First Lord of the Star League post-Cameron.
Btw way to point out the French influence in House Davion. If you remember Britain for a while was conquered first by the Romans, then the Angles/Saxons/Jutes, then William the Conqueror (from France). People seem to forget that bit of history.
Five pillars, five rings, coincidence I think not
The mech at 17:11 is actually from the Japanese battletech rulebook where the mechs where reworked from a mecha artist from japan
House Kurita: When we say put a planet to the sword we are not speaking figuratively.
House Davion: Liberating the Inner Sphere one political marriage and smoldering crater at a time.
House Liao: You do not have to be crazy to rule here, but it helps.
House Marik: Do not bother attacking us, we have that covered.
House Steiner: If it weighs under 80-tons we are not interested.
I find it funny when i've been in a group where two Atlas and a Highlander showed up as part of a Lance+ tanks ambush of my groups lance of medium mechs...
My little hoplite that everyone was making fun of me for taking this slow, no jump jet medium mech, tanked all three of those and the catapult firing at it. Managed to start waddling away because it had ZERO armor on the front left after the other sides alpha strike in this ambush, and just flipped arms and fired backwards still engaging while showing it's still armored ass to the enemy. We destroyed the enemy that match and the GM was just left confused that we not only only two pilots, and only one mech (not mine) but we not only succeeded in pulling out, but we actually won the engagement and completed our mission which because the amount of power that was dropped on us changed the entire warfront....
Admittedly our entire lance was out for the rest of the war and we had to play our B and C lances for the entire rest of the conflict. But hey A lance were legends that night, and i got to be a very happy boi as my Cappie triplets were allowed to phone home about the Feddie scum we later learned we had killed who had all also been mercs, but only after "retiring" sortly after waging numerous bloody campaigns against our beloved homeland. (GM wanted to rub in my face that Feddies killed my Cappie pilot since he assumed that my slow ass Hoplite would certainly die in the op)
Atlas and Assault Mechs don't mean much when you're team controls LOS and you can influence what the enemy shoots at via understanding of your mobility and the terrain.
Hired Steel is the animation.
....no it's not a Clanner Casino, it was Canopus.
Marik is more the Austo-Hungarian Empire than the USA.
You were thinking of the Hired Steel series
Mech at 5:00 is a wolverine, the better shadow hawk.
9:25 I died laughing at the realisation
47:03 Looks like a Fafnir, and judging by some of german text, Heavy gauss rifles in each side torso and medium pulse lasers to back them up (probably four of them)
17:00
Ok, bit of weird franchise history.
*In the beginning*, FASA (the original creators of the franchise) licensed a bunch of Macross, and Dougram, and other anime giant robot designs to incorporate into their new giant robot game: -Battledroids- Battletech.
As a new game, it then got sold back to Japan, and some of the designs got *redesigned* for Japanese sensibilities, while also dodging the designs that were legal to show stateside, but not in Japan.
30:00
As for Liao...
The basic jist is that Liao employs a *huuuuuuge* amount of propaganda.
It's also a fair bit more stable than at first glance owing to the fact that Citizens get free education and healthcare - and deploys it pretty evenly across their worlds. Even Comstar admits that they are the state with the best education and healthcare for their citizenry.
Note that Tex also mentioned you're not a Citizen until you earn it, which bouy's the relative quality of those things compared to everybody else in the Inner Sphere.
There's also all the shit with Harmony Gold also trying to claim ownership of any and all Macross art anywhere, despite doing nothing with their alleged license of that franchise...
With the look of those pillars one could say that house carita is a Bad Dragon
Dong laser mech is a Mackie the very first battle mech
26:30 - Sun-Tzu being good is a bit of a stretch. He did good things for the Confederation, but he also pulled a whole assload of shady crap, like abusing his power during his term as First Lord of the second Star League to retake the St Ives Compact with SLDF units, and allying with the later-mentioned Katherine Steiner-Davion to really cause problems later.
I know it's probably going to be another long series, but I strongly suggest you start the Mackie video. Now that you have a basic background of the Great Houses and how they operate, you can now get an idea of the beginnings of the first battlemech and what crazy events happened that set the stage for its creation. Great commentary.