"Hey guys, let challenge them to a game they've never heard of." "What did you have in mind Jimmy?" "Football!" "You mean Soccer?" "No the other ancient sport that only a select group of people played." "Oh nice one! We are the only ones who play THAT sport." Clan Ghost Bear: "That is literally our favorite sport! Yes! We accept. And to make it fair, we will only send 12 Elementals. They will be offence, defence, and special teams."
@@christopherhartford5066 And the BEST PART? Sheliak, the planet in question, managed a three-point field-goal thanks to the insane gumption of their old Pro Quarterback managing a 50 yard drive! 50 yards and a Kick after they had sent two quarterbacks and an constant stream of players to the hospital. The Ghost Bears wanted to adopt him on the spot, but as he told them, after that game he's retired.
@@DonaldWWitt That also highlights one of the things I like about Ghost Bear. They're willing and eager to adopt the most skilled people opposing them, but gracious enough to not push it if they refuse like he did. It brings a bit more of a sense of Honour to them than just sticking to the rigid Clan Honour system through thick and thin. Plus, they're the more family oriented Clan which makes them a bit more relatable.
Let's face it, with how they constantly fight amongst themselves, it's actually pretty admirable that the Free Worlds League is still standing to begin with.
They really do embody the meme of Willie from the Simpson's "Steiner and Marik are mortal enemies. Like Capellans and Marik. Or ComStar and Marik. Or Marik and Marik. Damn the Free Worlds League, they ruin the Free Worlds League!"
My all time favorite faction (as far as lore and how I read it) is the Taurian Concordat. I love how they feel like they mostly just want to be left alone, and when someone inevitably doesn't leave them alone even if they "lose" the Concordat still mangles them and just keeps fighting. They remind me of a scene from Gran Torino: "Get off my lawn".
Another reason I like them is I can relate to them (or at least my perception of them) due to my living conditions growing up. My county is possibly the most rural and remote in my state, with the fastest police response time I can remember being a full 45 minutes (a tie between 2 calls, a domestic violence incident and a murder). This has lead me to the mindset of "if it's bad enough to call the police for you're on your own", and accordingly I sleep with a handgun on my nightstand and a shotgun by my bed.
As a Rasalhauge player, having a best friend who's a Combine player, well there's a reason why for Christmas he gave me a full star of Clan Elementals.
In my battletech campaign I'm playing with friends, we call them RazzelDazzel. Been taking a lot of contracts to fight the Combine right now as the year we are playing is currently 3048
@@christopherhartford5066 eh a childhood is close enough for me also i literally copy pasted that off google as the result of ''when was rassaulhaugge founded'' so google lied
Man that Vegeta comment about CJF was so hilarious on point I'm still recoiling haha. Another cracking vid Red, even if my own rankings different I can't fault your explanations of why those that made it into your list did. Edit: I've said it before on your channel but I agree that the level of irl hatred for the Capellans is super bizarre, like some people I think get a little too serious into the fictional politics of the sphere haha.
I would say their bizarre hatred against the Capellans are mainly due to their reptilian animosity against communism (most likely from Tex's fanbase who're fanning the flames for some times) or a more relatable animosity against a specific "hostile/unfriendly" nation IRL (that's not what Capellan is largely based on, but politically relatable) that has been ingrained into their brains for many years And I will feel grossly scorned if they convince themselves that the atrocities committed by both the Clans & the Draconis Combine are nowhere worse than the Cappie commies
I just wish the FWL had gotten more love during the 3025-3049 era, in terms of the novels. Davion and Steiner get a ton, the Combine gets some, and even the Capellans get some time during the Warrior Trilogy, but there's so little material with the League that it's sad.
I love the FWL. I love the factionalism, and honestly, I like the Knights of the Inner Sphere. I find that the Knights represent both the attempt of the "Mariks" to create a lyran like order, but it only really served to create a double face of the FWL, the honorable knights and everyone else trying to undermine the order in the most FWL way
You hit all my favorites but one- Clan Nova Cat! Always liked those scrappy kitties, being the most spiritual of the clans and eventually siding with the inner sphere after the rebirth of the star league.
The spiritual leanings are probably the result of hallucinations caused by prolonged normal helmet usage A trait which they bred into their Warrior caste
@@johnarnold8485 even worse is the fact that in the current lore, they are dead and gone. Destroyed by Kurita for backing the more sane noble in a bid to right the faction. What few are left go by the splinter faction Shadow Cats (again) and are now in Marik space.
I'd blame it on ritualistic pyromania. They're obsessed with taking vineers to burn... but mechs have a lot of chemicals, so between physical exhaustion required to prepare for the Rite of Vision, and probably stuff like burning coolant/myomer/paint, that can't be good for sanity.
It's not all hopeless, as the previous Nova Cats who joined the Second Star League then Republic became Spirit Cats, and many of them ran around in confusion during the Dark Age, But also settled in the Clan Protectorate. That's a combination of both RepoTS remnants, Spirit Cat converts, and old Nova Cat remnants. Plus Minoru's actual Nova Cat refugees (which admittedly aren't many). The situation is still certainly bleak, but far from hopeless. Jaguars survived worse, and Cats are the better clan, IMO.
Despite their track record of screwing everyone else over, and being plagued constantly by the Social Generals, House Steiner’s Lyran Commonwealth remains in my top five. They make some of my favorite mechs like the Commando, Bushwacker, Wolfhound, and Zeus, and I find that some of their brigades don’t necessarily subscribe to the “promotion by payment’ mentality, like the Donegal Guards or Lyran Regulars. I hope Trillian can keep it together in the fights to come
The Lyran Alliance is every bit as sneaky as the Capellan's, one of their leaders ordered her mother killed with a bomb and implied it was one of her brothers.
Used to be Draconis Combine due to me being half japanese. Changed to the Capellans when I got older as I starting to favour underdog factions. Just loved how they manage to hold on to being a great house even though clearly being the weakest by quite a margin. Also great lore and interesting mechs.
@@BigRed40TECH . You have to be. It's easy being a winner with plenty of mech factories, large officer corp, vast manpower and tons of money to replenish losses. Capellans make-do-with-what-we-have attitude has kept them in the fight. As well as alternatives like deadly special forces, mercenaries and fanatic indoctrination of soldiers.
Not so weak anymore by the beginning of the ilClan era. The Capellans along with the newly reborn FWL are a powerhouse factions that could resist the ilKhan's tyranny to some degree
My favorite factions are the Capellan Confederation and Clan Jade Falcon. Funnily enough, they're both green and have swords in their faction symbol. Loved the Capellans for their interesting take on citizenship, their refusal to lay down and die despite everything thrown at them, and their mechs. Also loved them for their emphasis on combined arms, their scrappy underdog status, and the fanatacism of their citizenry. Jade Falcon became my favorite clan mainly after reading the Jade Falcon trilogy. They're my first deep dive view into how the clans work. I like their ferocity in battle, their unashamed crusaderness, as well as their funny, cartoon villain depiction in the Battletech cartoon. But if I were to sum my favorite Clan Jade Falcon trait, it would be with this quote from "I am Jade Falcon" The distance between the surface of Dogg seemed formidable. The way to the elevator would be as pitch dark as ever and the elevator the same monstrosity of a contraption. The odds were astronomically against her. "What possible advantage could you mean?" Karlacc asked. "My advantage?" Joanna said as she opened the door all the way and stepped through it. "Yes." "I am Jade Falcon."
I quite like Steiner, the idea of social generals and such a powerful nobility is both interesting and funny to me. My favourite faction, however, is most probably the Northwind Highlanders, I love how they keep Scottish traditions and military identity alive, as well as the identity of the Royal Black Watch Regiment.
@@christopherhartford5066 Jade falcon doesnt really have as the scottish vibe to it that the Highlanders do, from what I've read. They're alright, not my favourite clan (ghost bear) but jade falcon's pretty cool
@@thelordchancellor3454 Guten Nacht, Freund! I've been a Steiner fan / player since the early '90s when I first got into BT, and the Bears are my favorite clan. I prefer the Protectorate of Donegal for the Irish-flavor. I was all-in on the FedCom, too. In the '90s, I preferred the 6th Lyran Guard, but once the Civil War started, I shifted to the 10th, since they remained loyal to Victor while the 6th supported Katherine. And I won't lie...the Animated Series played a role in my love of the FedCom, as well as turning me against the dirty birds entirely. Several people in my area that played BT were die-hard dirty birds' fans, so I'm sure that fueled my hatred, too. I started playing Ghost Bears as soon as I picked up the _CityTech_ 2nd Ed. boxed set.
I'm much newer to BattleTech, with you being my major entry point, this is great to know, and for my part, I've really grown to like the Lyrans. There's something really delightful about the dynamic of theirs which to my mind feels a bit like the HRE, and that disconnect between their truly fantastic 'Mechs and strategic planners, and the atrociously incompetent but over-geared commanders. It's always a fun dynamic to see, and my love of the Commando... Commando is my favorite Light of all time, where it looks amazing and is similarly useful as a 'Mech.
Oh Steiner's great. They used to be my favourite. I've just slowly lost interest in them. I don't dislike them by any means, they're just not in my top list anymore :)
@@BigRed40TECH Aye, I will also say, you've been slowly pushing me to the words of Blessed Blake. They're really quite an interesting force being that they're responsible for *everything* but have a reason, which is great to read about.
Nice overview. You make good cases here. Next I'd be interested in seeing your bottom ranked factions and hearing why they land where they do... but that would be a lot more controversial.
I fall in love with the Awesome before I even knew about BattleTech, and I have a fascination of The Austrian-Hungarian empire. So when I heard that the FWL has both, it became my favorite faction.
Word of Blake faithful here. Looking forward to the day they return to the Sphere in glory, having gone so far off the deep end they came back onto dry land. Let 'em give the Clanners front row seats to what a REAL invasion looks like, just as they originally intended to.
My Top five has changed a lot over the years but currently it's: 5) Marian Hegemony 4) Taurian Concordat 3) Clan Goliath Scorpion 2) Clan Ghost Bear 1) Free Rasalhague Republic
All pretty great choices here. I'm more of a periphery player myself but Clan Ghost Bear are definitely the best of the NPCs from up north. Liking states with both their flaws and their strengths is far greater than pretending they're perfect too.
Yes!! Literally, ghost bears is why I got into hobbying! When I found out that the ghost bear game I grew up playing over and over was actually a table top game and there were minis I could paint I dove in! Now I’m a commissioned mini painter discovering this whole world of hobbying I knew nothing about!
From the beginning, I was a fan of House Steiner and a lover of the Archon Katrina 😊 I was glad of the Federated Commonwealth creation and sad for its end 😭😁 I am a great fan of the Hatchetman. Despite its many flaws, it looks so great with its xenomorph look 😁
Still learning about all the factions, but rn my favorite is the Federated Suns... for pretty much opposite reasons to yours. I love that they try (even when they fail) to be the good guys, and that they, more than any other faction, try to be like noble knights. I also really like the sword&sun symbol, easily the most distinct out of the 5 great houses. I've started learning more about rasalhague though and they seem pretty cool. They also have an amazing symbol.
I don't know why the narrator uses the old names for the Davions and the Lyrans. After the civil war, They were the Federated commonwealth for house Davion and Lyran Alliance for the Steiners.
@@drmayeda1930 Even before the Federated Commonwealth civil war it was dead. The civil war was Katherine Steiner Davions atempt to force herself onto the Davion.
fed suns made a lot of mechs, such as the victor, centurion, and dervish, and well as having great lore only downside in my opinion IS THEY WILL NOT LET ME REPAIR MY MECHS IN MW5! i wanna help with cappelan invasion but i cant do that if i cant fix my mechs awaguoiaskjga
@temp3608 You gotta go into that quest line with pretty close to a battalion of mechs in you hanger. I went into it with 15 mechs lost 3 and 2 pilots and got 5 mechs and 25 million C-bills in return.
My first love when it comes to Battletech factions will always by the Eridani Light Horse. They captured my heart when I first came across Battletech via the CamoSpecs book oh so many long years ago back around 1990. A large part of why I don't care for the Jihad and Dark Ages is how they were handled in those time frames. Second for me is the Federated Suns and rounding out my top three is the Lyran Commonwealth which slide below the Suns once they devolved into the Lyran Alliance. Clan Ghost Bear slides in as my number four faction but that is mainly because I enjoy the time frames of the First Succession War up to roughly 3030 best.
My problem is that my love of a faction keeps turning into units of Battletech minis. I have a full regiment each of Eridani Light Horse, Donegal Guards, a couple of FedSuns militia, and then a couple clusters worth of Ghost Bears.
I think the Taurian Concordat is the most interesting non-Clan faction to me. As the Clans go, the Star Adders and Diamond Sharks would be at the top of the list. Honorable mentions go to Hell's Horses and Ghost Bears though.
@@AdairCorbin I'm just predicting the future for fun, but I could see them leading a second invasion of the Inner Sphere. Home Clans vs. Spheroid Clans.
I never thought much of the FWL when I was younger, but recently I have really started finding them interesting, and their storyline in the IllClan era is one of my favorites of that Era. (Edit: Spelling)
Sven’s videos made me fall in love with the Taurians. I still don’t really know much still beyond the succession wars yet, so much option pool is pretty limited.
Loved the ranking list and agree with a lot of your points. Comstar fascinated me as the esoteric masters of communication who played everyone against everyone.. and the brilliant glory of Tukayid. Of the true heirs of the star league holding their ground against the pretenders with guile, skill, and battlemechs is legendary... hm, I seem to be biased. My personal favorite in the Draconis Combine. As villainous as they have been or been portrayed in many cases, a lot of the time I feel like they weren't 'cruel' or 'treacherous' as they were just smart. They played their hands as best they could and have some great leaders, anti-heros, and just amazing campaigns throughout their run. Also I love PPCs and Dragons. And they feed this need.
As someone who started with 3rd edition of the tabletop way back when... (i convinced my younger brother to split the price of the box, boy did we have a ton of fun with that first set)... The Combine has truly been one of the roller coaster factions alternately being both villainous and heroic. And my first fave combine person was Theodore Kurita!
You wanted a list, here's you list in no particular order aside the first place: 1. ComStar (great health insurance, amazing benefits, you come for paying job and because your parents worked there, you stay for Blessed Blake. 2. Magistracy of Canopus. I really love the Space Vegas for the House Always Wins aesthetic. You can't even win the war against them, without losing in the end. They will subvert you, bleed you dry and just wait, until you leave. FWL learnt that lesson in Reunification Wars. Them getting Canopus as their adversary was truly "drawing a short stick". 3. Clan Sea Fox. Weaponized capitalism. It's in my blood. It's in my nature. It speaks to me. 4. Taurians. Thomas Calderon is one of my favourite personalities of BattleTech. The man branded as insane and paranoid. The man who saw the writing on the wall and was preparing for eventuality of the French Pirate Kingdom throwing hands again. The man who wasn't vindicated because Clan Invasion happened. Also, I love "get off my lawn" approach. 5. Draconis Combine - they are great, they have some of my favourite mechs and they are unabashedly evil most of the time. Moustache twirling samurai men with mechs, "honour", "manifest destiny" and enough guts to not die horribly to either of the powerhouses of the IS around them
I enjoyed hearing your thoughts on your favourite factions. The Free Worlds League and The Federated Suns also make my list in the same general order for similar reasons. Like you, my personal list is heavily influenced by video games. So number one for me has to be the Arano Restoration. I loved Harebrained Schemes' BattleTech game so much. One of my favorite video games ever and my favorite BattleTech product ever. The original (pre-fall) Star League would be number two. That is mostly because of the reverence so many people in-universe have for it and how they talk about it. It became this amazing foundational myth for me. Even learning more about how it really was over time has never taken that away - I still like them a lot.
Jade Falcon fan over here. I like that they were 'perpetual bad boys of the storyline' and hold high hope for JF Remnant led by Jiyi Chistu. Pretty much like Ghost Bears, they are trying to change. And while GB tried to change their society by merging with Inner Sphere elements, JFR seems to be trying to change by being more adaptive. It can be an interesting evolution, if they do it right. Also, quite surprised that you are familiar with Yugoslavia situation. Not many people are...
Same here although I'm not sure which of the 2 splinter factions of Jade Falcon I like the best,the one led by Clan Chistu or the merchant breakoff one.
The classic Jade Falcons were also fun because mixed in with their vile personnel were warriors of great honor as well as skill and power. If you were casting another remake of "The Magnificent Seven Mechwarriors", you would want one of them to be someone with a Pryde bloodname who became dezgra because of something that their integrity made them do or kept them from doing. The Jade Falcons often reminded me of TNG/DSG Klingons.
Such a well-done video, researched with your inner thoughts and personal feelings added to your experiences. 👍 I passed on Battledroids at the Game Keeper store at the local mall in 1984, and pulled the trigger the following year when I graduated high school. Davion & Marik were my choices that first year.
@@disgraced101 Wolves at the Border and Heir to the Dragon are the best BT books out there. And Wolf's Dragoons will always be special and likeable, just for their cool back story regarding their secret mission. Usually I don't like overpowered protagonists and it may look like a kid's choice but Wolf's Dragoons are just cool. Kell Hounds otoh are boring af.
That's what's fun about the Battletech universe, there's so much lore that every passing month I feel like my tastes change in regard to factions. I used to simp hard for the Cappelan Confederation, now it's all about who the highest bidder is. :D
Nice video man! Still love the Republic as ever, but I also love Canopus, and want to see both Filtvelt Coalition and Fronc Reaches get back the world's they lost and thrive/grow!!
Capellan Confederation has always been my favorite faction. Yes, they can be strangely cartoony at time (Maximilian Liao and Operations Doppelganger) but they have spirit. They are that stubborn person that refuses to go down. Plus, they have some interesting quirks like how you become a citizen in their society. I think overall their differences make them weirdly refreshing. Plus, being the underdog for the longest time made them be unique with how they handle their situations. The Trinity alliance for example. Plus they got Death Commandos and I think they are super neat. The Warrior Houses are pretty cool too being like warrior monks.
Mines has to be the Arkhab Legion from the Draconis Combine. For one, I love their fast hit and run battle tactics; It's perfect when used with medium bruisers like the Wolverine which can punch way above their weight class. Furthermore, any faction that gave the Dracos such a heavy beat down that they were forced to accept the cultural Independance of said faction is a totally bad as faction in my books.
My list would probably go 5: Jade Falcon: The Clanniest Clan to have ever Clanned, the Vegeta comment just nailed why I love them so much and I really like using their paint schemes in MW5, especially for the Clan mods. 4: Lyran Commonwealth: Steiner Scout memes aside, I've always looked at the Commonwealth as the Successor State that had its shit together the most and was the state that I'd probably pick to be stuck in if I suddenly teleported into Battletech, at least until *she* shows up. 3: Capellan Confederation: I instantly fell in love with the Raven when it showed up in HBS' Battletech and it just grew from there. I actually like them for some of the same reasons that Red likes the Combine, but I find the Capellans have the more interesting history/politics. 2: Star League and the SLDF: Though it hasn't existed as a faction in a long, long time, whether it's stuff like the Goddamn Black Watch or the history of units that stayed in the Sphere like the ELH, there's just so many awesome and tragic things of note that really got me attached to its legacy; I also really like using their paint schemes and Royal Mechs are always really neat to have. Though on that note.... 1: Comstar: Praise Blake. My honorable mentions would probably be the Taurians, Mercenaries in general and Rasalhague
Taurian Concordat Free Words League Clan Ghost Bear Clan Jade Falcon And Finally last be very much not least Star League. I like your feeling towards the Word of Blake and then also playing Word Barers. It's really interesting how the factions we choose often are heavily influenced by or own world views. As Dark Angel, I like to quote the Lion saying, "Loyalty is it's own reward." Let me also just say, the Free World's League strikes me as those siblings that are always fighting until an outsider picks on one of them and then all the others come together to ruin the outsiders day. Then the bullied party is like, "Thanks guys!" Then they get their hat knocked off and it's like, "Shut up nerd."
I always enjoyed using Comstar as a vague and overpowered enemy during the succession wars for my Mechwarrior tt campaign. One major rule to remember is that death comes quickly to characters who climb out of their mechs.
The culture of the Draconis Combine is amazingly deep and interesting. I'd usually try to call myself a Fed-Rat, but the history behind the Combine is amazing.
I may have gotten carried away with this comment due to commenting right before sleep, I hope you enjoy a journey through 25+years of this series following me throughout my life. My favorite factions for different eras of my time playing the game: MW2 - "Clan Wolf so lame, which makes me sad 'cuz wolves are cool. Jade Falcon evil, so they are interesting, also they are underdogs. I want them!". I was 8 at the time. MW3 I didn't have, and MW4 Vengeance I didn't have an incentive to think about factions MWO Era (Faction play caused me to do a deep dive on lore, and what mechs each faction uses) Kurita 'cuz Dragon was one of my favorite designed mechs at the time, and Jenner is so friggin fun to play. Also I love PPCs, MRMs, and the whole "way of the samurai" stuff. Also the concept of vibroblades is awesome. Then Clan Ghost Bear for Mad Dog usage, the family/sticking together thing, also being patient for the right moment to attack swiftly and heavily. Then Clan Goliath Scorpion for minding their own business compared to other clans so they can recover lost technology. Also tests of precision, and the "dance of scars" is interesting to me. Also funny to me on multiple levels that it seems like pilots want large lasers, and the engineers just give them missiles and autocannons. MW5 + BattleTech Video game + BattleTech Tabletop era (current) Liao originally because with so much Inner Sphere action, it thrust Catapult to being the favorite Mech. Also Raven is 2nd place being 2nd place because visuals and concept alone. Also stealth, using environment and such is kinda my jam when it comes to playing whenever it is something I can do. Temporary 4-way tie. Lyrans (because bigger + better fits playing with casual friends in MW5 which is the majority of my playtime with the MechWarrior/BattleTech), Kurita (Samurais+PPCs), Liao (Catapult+Raven+Stealth+JJs), and Marik (Seems to also love PPCs, and seems to like LRMs more than anyone else) Which all led to the final choice (as of this comment) with picking Marik, which I found funny because it's what he chose in the video. However, since I don't have extensive knowledge of everything every faction has, so Marik feels more "normal" compared to other houses, but it feels like it represents the Inner Sphere the best. Yes people are struggling to work together, yes they are probably backstabbing each other when it's convenient, but they will team up against new threats (ex clans and blakists) even if it's temporary. Marik ain't trying to cover up what humanity is like in a warlike environment like any other faction and they embrace it. Marik has the most mechs that I love a lot and that is one of the focuses of the setting compared to other factions that have 1-2 "must haves" and then I just don't care about any others. Trebuchet, Awesome, Stalker (go-to assault) for some Marik Staples. Then others they use a ton of Hunchback (my go-to funtime medium mech), Battle Master, Crusader, Quickdraw, Wolverine (6M). Also doubt comstar will ever be playable in any sort of game, so Thug gets a mention since Marik is the only house that uses them in the succession wars it seems. Again, I can be totally wrong, this is just based off what I read in Sarna and faction assignment stuff. Special mention to the Orion, since I was heavy into clans and was kinda like "what the heck is this?" when I ran into inner sphere only stuff in MWO. Thought Orion was the most boring looking mech possible initially. So doing research I kinda liked Orion because it was Kerensky's mech so I liked it a bit more. Then after looking at other inner sphere stuff and how a lot of mechs work, I now love how everything comes together to let the Orion have it's identity. So Orion kinda not only is a representative of the Marik but also the Inner Sphere. Soo, there's a massive bias towards Marik because of that. I might not be able to use it with my friends running cheese builds all the time in the MechWarrior games, but I've started to really prefer using it as the big beefy boy in medium/heavy lances having a weapon for each situation so my friends can have fun with glass cannony builds. On a sillier note, they are purple and that is my favorite color! Also apparently Marik has an aerial infantry division dedicated to branths. Which are basically dragons. I'm a massive sucker for dragons..... You'd think they would've had those in Kurita. So current top 5 would probably be something like this: #1 Marik #2 Liao #3 Clan Ghost Bear #4 Kurita #5 Clan Goliath Scorpion Clans could be debatably #1 because I love clan tech, and the look of clan mechs more. And various lore reasons. I'm just bombarded with Inner Sphere games lately so I might be having an inner sphere bias because of that. I've also been slowly liking Comstar more as time goes on. I used to be in the dark about them in general, and anything I heard was people hating them, but now I know more about them, they are interesting to me since they make quite the impact and give something to talk about (and not just 'cuz I love crabs, king crabs, and thugs).
Dragoons is where my Battletech waifu is from. I'm in love with the Black Widow. And mostly because she is a badass who pilots the best mech. The Warhammer.
I'm fairly new to the universe. I've read the first Grey Death legion trilogy where the Combine are painted as rather villainous until near the end, and now I'm reading "Wolves on the Border". That book has gone a long way in humanizing them even as it makes me hate some aspects of the Combine again. So yeah, I'm a little conflicted. Great video, by the way.
You're going to find everyone are bastards in Battletech. They all justify their bad behaviour by saying "Well, we have to or X", but no one is good. Davion breaks ceasefires consistently, and play it off as them being smart (ironically while saying you can't trust Capellans lmao) Kurita is a war-crimes factory Liao is an oppression-hole Marik is wildly corrupt and cruel Steiner is incredibly cruel and ambitious. Like, they're all bad-guys. They've all got their bright-spots too. The factions where you start having more trouble finding silver-linings are like, the Clans, and Comstar. Ironically, the 2 descendants of the Star League government. lmao
Sussed you out early in your Battletech coverage campaign. All it took was one "Glory to Marik!" in your comments. But I agree with your assessment of the FWL. They are interesting because of their history, nuance, and ideology. The fact that FWL functions at all in-spite of the diversity of character, cultures, and governments is a testament to how unified the peoples of the Free Worlds League really are. But never forget: The greatest danger to a Marik is another Marik. "Glory to Marik!"
Good choices! My inner sphere favorites: are Federated Suns, Draconis Combine. Clans: Smoke Jaguar & Jade Falcons, they make great villains. Capellans I usually have as inner sphere antagonists.
I love the vindicator, I travel to their lands just for the hunt of collecting more. I have always been a fan of the Davion Faction, and the Wolf Dragoons. But honestly, the Free Rasalhague League reminds me of times in the Marine Corps. Usually we get handed down equipment, and we fight with what have and are highly motivated... chanting, cursing, and basically always ready for a fight.
I played MW@ with the Ghost Bear expansion as well. I LOVED that game. I also played the BattleTech and Mechwarrior TTRPGs throughout the 90's and early 2000's. I helped the people that play tested MW3 (RPG) in San Diego at a game shop in Hazard Center. I got my start when I located them while I was still stationed at Point Loma on a fast attack submarine. When I was discharged, I stayed there a few years and got to play in their tournaments. I moved back to Arkansas shortly after 9/11. My favorite character was a noble in House Davion. I played him just like you described, portraying him as a noble hero, even convincing almost everyone I knew that I was the good guy. I started my own mercenary unit and exploited the stars. It was a blast.
outside of the wolfs gotta be the federated commonwealth as number 1 for me. the old school medieval politicking and incomitance merged with traditions and blood lines is just a fun faction.
An insightful video into the host is always appreciated. I hope you christmas was a good one and may you stay safe and enjoy your new years. And as always, you keep Makin the content, I'll keep watchin It's always interesting how, as we grow older, we appreciate the supposed "bad guys" more. We learn to appreciate how unabashedly evil, cunning, vile, or broken they may be. We learn to appreciate the role they play in the lives of our "heroes". As I'm still new to battletech and my interests are mostly mech driven I have no real substantial view of things of the greater world of Battletech. I was initially drawn to ghost bears because bears are my favorite animals. As I read more into them I learned of how their culture shares a few root beliefs of my own. it helps to drive me even closer to them. Another clan I like is wolverine. They were everything kernsky wanted from the clans and though im sad they were murdered, I appreciate that is exactly why they couldn't exist. What makes me sad is that, from what I have read, I have not seen a redemption arch for Clan Raven who felt bad about their part in Wolverine's anihilation. (As a small aside, I'm kinda mad the double lbxac20 kodiak is a Raven exclusive mech. How could they give my double shotguns bear to frost birb?! Rude!)
While I started as a FedSuns fanboy back in the 80's, I slowly drifted to appreciate the FWL. They've never been the hero faction, so they don't suffer from the tropes that afflicted the FedSuns and Dracs. They did have the most under appreciated scenario book, "Rolling Thunder". I loved the "me against my brother; my brother and me against the world" world view. The weak central authority means the FWL is incredibly ineffective on offense, but also means its forces are usually well rested and repaired for defensive ops. The lack of editorial attention meant the FWL and it's periphery filled out more organically. I kinda loved that the FWL basically sat out the Clan Invasion, with a heroic "we got your backs bro's!" to the FedComs and Combine, heroically selling weapons and equipment but not sending any units. And when people (mainly FedComs) tried to throw shade, Marik fanboys would respond with a "trade any dead kids recently?" While not a fan of the Knights of the Inner Sphere, it does sound like something Marik would do. Get all the ideological types in one unit so they're easier to keep an eye on. Of the Clans, I'd go for the Smoke Jaguars. To me the Clans will always be the bad guys, and the Smoke Jaguars did this best. There is a scene in of the the novels where Kuritan partisans killed some Jaguars with a bomb, so the Jags threaten to blow up an entire neighborhood in reprisal (they may have actually destroyed after their initial threat was ignored by the rebels, can't remember). At the last moment a Buddhist monk shows up and claims responsibility for the attack. The Jags don't even question him or how he could be responsible. They kill him on the spot and go home. It never even enters their mind that he might be lying, sacrificing his life to spare other innocents. That's how alien their thought process is. Out of all the invasion clans, to me the Smoke Jaguars were the most consistently portrayed as the traumatized off-spring of a warrior ethos gone rogue.
I'd argue the only thing that makes sense is that Thomas Halas was likely a Terran, and Terrans in Battletech all seem to love Camelot, so the KOTIS make sense under those conditions. But I don't think there would be organic support for them, or such an idea, in the FWL.
I always thought the FWL was an Underdog faction even more than the Capellans. The Capellans never-say-die spirit has time and again gotten them through the worst the Sphere threw at them, but the FWL is a house of cards that'll fall in on itself at every inopportune time. It is funny though that I only began reading about them because I fell in love with the Awesome prior to even really looking into the FWL itself. I never thought they were anything to write home about then, but now I'll stand by Marik no matter how many rabbit holes they dig for themselves to fall in [and of course preferably in one my darling Awesomes].
My favorite factions are probably the Wolf Dragoons having been introduced to the franchise via Mechassault on the original Xbox. Then I started playing Mechwarrior-clix where I was first drawn to the Highlanders because of their more armored than average units. After the Falcon's Prey and Age of Destruction sets and the demise of the Highlanders I found myself playing a lot of House Davion and Clan Jade Falcon and got really into their respective lores which also got me interested in the Federated Commonwealth and thus House Steiner as a "complement" to House Davion. My Honorable Mentions would have to be Clan Nova Cat because of their cool mechs in the clix game and unfortunate demise, as well as the Republic of the Sphere because while I wasnt a huge fan of them in the clix game, I appreciate them from a lore standpoint.
Yes, the free worlds league! I was starting to worry that I was the only one. My battletech group are all clans and Steiner fans. But I've always thought purple bird is best
Holup. MegaMek games in the mid-2000's. Playing House Marik. Raiding the DC whenever possible. *checks maps* I have questions. Questions to which the answer is probably a worlds-long supply train, a whole lot of salvaging, and a few hospital wards worth of migraines for stellar cartography as they redraw the boundaries YET AGAIN (grumble grumble third time this WEEK).
I got my start playing a Wolverine-M pilot in the Iron Guards of House Marik. Trying to use Wolverine's and Hermes against Zeus and Stalkers was how I cut my teeth in table top. I may have drifted into more DCMS focus in later years, but that was only because the lore totally ignored Marik during and after the 4th Succession Wars.
I can't agree any more with your #1 pick. For literally decades, the FWL for me was just the "Oh yeah, they're over there doing... something. Probably fighting with each other, it doesn't matter." faction, since beyond the meh Ideal War, they just didn't get _any_ spotlight in the novels which formed the main way through which I got into the lore. Only coming back around a year ago and reading my way through the DA novels I really got a good look into the FWL and found it to be the best, most interesting storyline they came up with in DA, and one they stuck with and kept alive and consistent to this day, which by itself is not something you can say about too many things from the DA novels. There's a reason I set my very first BT campaign to run in way over 20 years on a former Marik-Stewart Commonwealth world in the Republic just as it's about to go down. I really like what they did with the FWL and the Halas'es and really hope they keep that story running in interesting directions, with all the different factions, the troubled relations with the Confederation and Commonwealth, the Wolf Empire all around them and now even the Sea Foxes and Spirit Cats sitting in parliament, it makes the FWL by far the funnest mess this setting has to offer right now.
As a player that started playing back just as the 2nd edition box came out, I too enjoyed the Federated Suns but had a soft spot for the Wolf's Dragoons. As the Clans came out I was always interested in the past history of the IS. The Star League was and is a fascinating storyline I hoped and wished was expanded upon. The Periphery is also a weird and strange place. Listening to your and others as I now play Battletech with my sons, going came to basics and moving forward into the newer stuff, they ask me about the older times and they seem to enjoy the older Battletech, the Battletech I fell in love with and find myself looking back to. My sons, a few old friends, their sons and I started a campaign based off of my most favorite faction, Clan Wolverine/The Minnesota Tribe. We linked the Tribe with the surviving members of House Cameron in a comeback, coming out of the Deep Periphery facing off with Comstar Pre-Clan invasion, Pre-fourth Secession War out past the borders of the Cappellan Marches and Herotitus. It is a campaign based mostly in Battlespace with some planetary battles we hope, we literally just started 12/26/22. The Clan Wolverine forces lead by the Returning First Lord Cameron vs Comstar may not be for everybody but for us, its proofing to fuel back on the smoldering embers of this old player. I pick Clan Wolverine as my top pick!
Clan Jade Falcon is my number one because of their bird of prey theming, the color green, and relative pragmatism (especially after the Invasion) juxtaposed with their villainy and self-proclaimed traditionalism. Smoke Jaguar is definitely great as that "bright burning candle" faction that went down swinging. The second spot in my top five is a contest between them, the Ghost Bears, Diamond Sharks/Sea Foxes, and Hell's Horses.
Hmmmmm my favorites are as follows 5. Ghost Bear 4. Wolverine, Thier dare to be different 3. FWL because of the "Yugoslavia" many different groups fighting amongst themselves yet strong enough to give headaches to their foes. 2. Draconis Combine, no better way to make your group better than to challenge in battle. 1. Davion perhaps because they were the first faction I played back in the 90s. That and they knew how to make a wedding interesting 🤣
Joined the FWL during "The Registry" glory days, playing on Mech2 Dos with 28.8k modems on dialup connections, with Kali being used as the meeting place. When the Reg failed "The Killing Zone"(TKZ) and the "Grand Council"(GC) took over. Coming from Australia most of the games were held in the US with crazy match times for me at 2 or 3 in the morning to compete in US timezones. I was ushered into the 12th Dragoons(White Sabres) and I have been FWL ever since. Learned how to lag shoot out to 1 second until we got our super-fast 56.6k modems up and running. Then it was down to 700ms. Hard to believe that was over 30 years ago.
The way I view the Federated Suns is simple - they have the best PR department in the setting. I think my top five would be... Capellans, Comstar, DC, FedSuns, and Sea Fox. But I absolutely understand why you love the FWL. Every time I try to rate or describe factions, I always feel like I don't know enough about the FWL to do them justice.
Capellans; I love underdogs, and I find them and people's reaction to them hilarious. Favorite IS mechs in MWO are stealth FLE-20 and RAC5 UM-K9. Favorite clan mech is PIR-2 laser boat. Embrace the h8.
I was a Davion simp until I learnt from Black Pants Legion that the Taurian Concordat told the Star League to go away and kept them away for 20 years. Also they have a system named after my home city of Brisbane in BattleTech 2019 so that's a win. They definitely remind me of that Australian defiance and stubbornness I grew up around (even if they're not actually Australian)
Welp inspired. In my case lore color scheme and even if they just made a certain mech heres my top 5 1: the star league (closet humanity gets to being under one flag, if only they had a better system than feudalism for the king.) 2: clan diamond shark (mad cat2, most practical clan, aside from maybe wolverine. Make most of the really neat things that make the clans stand out.) 3: lyrain/Stiner (capitalism done, um okish. Probably in most cases about the best place to be a regular person.) 4: fed suns (they might stab you in the back but they will give you a heads up, plus they have the best flag.) 5 : clan wolf (mad cat that's really the most of reason, tho they definitely show what the clan could do with some basic sense and logistics. Image if the military of the other 19 where like this and came in united.) Mentions in order Clan ghost bear, the Capellans, Jade Flacon, Star Adder, smoke Jaguar (lovable villains) And the bottom 5 5: mercenaries (why they are so prominent, I know lore a bit but geeze they really seem to be a thing just for IRL game reasons) 4: amaris (his faction and him just petty scum who wrecks the star league.) 3: the combine (probably the worst outside most of the clans to live in as a normal person, the scumbag moves they make and those samurai looking mech with swords are so out of place for me they are tacky and immersion breaking.) 2: the free worlds league (why do they exist) 1: com star (the crazy religious zealots somehow run the space internet and somehow have insane plot armor so they can do their crazy things because no one can figure out how to make the space internet work, makes zero sense to me)
I too was a DCMS hater in the beginning of my long trek down the Battletech lore path. This came from reading the Grey Death Legion trilogy where the DCMS were the main bad guys in that story arc. And let's be honest....House Kurita were MAJOR dicks during the Amaris Civil War and were the ones who kicked off the Succession Wars. It wasn't until the War of 3039 that they started to slowly change my opinion and get their shit together. Now I'm loving them and hope that I can take my two DCMS lances against family members in the future.
yeah, i remember clan GB from the expansion of mechwarrior 2. the thing i love about them aside from the Warden faction, is their familial ties, that is the basis of the clan lore & history. the future with clan GB & FRR is also good
5. Clan Ghost Bear - Of all the Clans, the Ghost Bears changed their thoughts on the Inner Sphere after Tukayyid and fundamentally changed. 4. Taurian Concordat - There's something about a Periphery nation ready to go full Tasmanian Devil against one of the most advanced Inner Sphere nation at the drop of a hat. 3. Federated Suns - Specifically, Hanse Davion and the War of 3039. Unifying with the Lyrans alone would be enough for the history books, but launching a major offensive against the rest of the Inner Sphere and surprising ComStar, that elevates Hanse to magnificent bastard. 2. ComStar - Wait, the telecom company has a military and has been spying on all the Inner Sphere to make sure none get ahead? The schism gave the setting a proper villain, the Word of Blake, who is willing to burn everything down out of spite. 1. Magitsracy of Canopus - they've gone from Periphery to player through politics and diplomacy. The alliance with the Capellans benefits both, giving Capellans extra military strength and some sanity injected into House Liao's bloodline and giving Canopus a way into the Inner Sphere. Honourable Mention to the Capellans, who manage to survive despite the insanity of leadership and the predation of the Federated Suns and the Free Worlds League.
My favorite factions are two of the great houses Steiner and Davion. I love them because of the contract, with steiner and their "Throw what ever we got at it" and Davions "Honor, glory, and tactics" I also loved when they combined together then the Civil War to follow. But out of the two I have to say steiner is still my fav house. They are just nice to read into, I mean they got a God darn planet dedicated to murder for fun, whats not fun to love.
I feel a bit guilty thinking I kicked this off with memes, but I like hearing how people's well thought-out reasoning for liking specific factions. Especially when folks change their favorites over time. It's something that's unique to old, living settings. I'd love to see a series on all the factions considering the details you manage to dig up. That said, I love the Purple Burb too. Reminds me of America; would much rather fight amongst themselves until some uppity foreigner talks trash, then they unite to kick their teeth in. The Falcons just because they are so memetastic and had some great characters like Horse, Johanna, Ravill, and Diana. I'm really enjoying the non-Wolf lapdog flavor of green turkeys in the IlClan era. Wolverines simply because being the proficient rebel is fun, and Go Blue! ComStar was great until they wield the fiat-bat too much or hard. Canopus is a honorable mention considering they are the most "free" in the setting, and they have some serious GoT-tier political intrigue potential.
You know, I feel like a friendship between a mechwarrior from FedSuns and one from the Combine would be interestimg Unlikely given their home factions are mortal enemies, but imagine it, a brash, arrogant and idealistic knight being buds with a more tempered and uptight samurai
Current favourite faction is Clan Star Adder, though not always so: With games like the original MechCommander and reading Exodus Road and Freebirth I liked the Smoke Jaguars, they did make for excellent and arguably tragic antagonists. Having recently read the Jade Phoenix and re-reading Freebirth I gained new appreciation for the Invasion era Jade Falcons. Overall however I am firmly in the Star Adder camp despite the lack of lore post-3085 and I do feel their actions in the WoR almost betrayed their nature as a Clan of Kerensky, their often demonstrated practical nature becoming a ruthless pragmatism.
Clan Wolf, Clan Ghost Bear, Draconis Combine and Capellan Confederation are all my favorite factions but if I had to pick one from those 4 then it would be Draconis Combine.
I feel a lot of contentious (rather than just fun and self-aware, which I think is the majority of discourse despite some loud and needy voices in internet forums) factionalism in the battletech fanbase is the tendency to personally associate and moralize one faction (I don't think there's any truly moral faction the fractious BT universe, and most good PR should be taken as in setting PR), but there's few factions I don't like as even if they don't personally appeal to me as they see themselves, most just work so well as mustache twirling villains. And you need those in a fun setting. Its why I love the DC despite never having the urge to play them. It would be a more boring universe without em.
A totally fair take! I don't dislike factions for their morality (I, after all, played Word Bearers), but I do think when in-universe they get white-washed is a bit... unsavory.
@@BigRed40TECH Oh yeah, indeed, I definitely don't dislike factions for their morality, and moralizing them after the fact in universe as sometimes happens with settings and authors always has some cognitive whiplash to it. It just seems a common trend when "my faction is better than yours" goes from good fun to not so fun, that personal moralizing gets involved. To me in a setting of warlords, some of whom are occasionally more or less bloodthirsty/discerning than the next, that probably shouldn't be the chief criteria for faction enjoyment. Ya gotta have those mustaches! (except the Amaris pencil mustache-like take on a fu-man-chu, I don't think anyone needs that kind of a mustache, although mustache aside, that's some top tier villainy)
I'm always curious about the hate towards the Capellans, they've been working their way up to being my personal favourite faction. Thanks for the video, it was great to hear your opinions on some of the factions and what drew you to your personal picks.
The bizarre animosity against the Capellans is a bad case of mixing their bad tastes on real life politics with science fiction - as they often compared the Confederation with real life nations ruled by authoritarian governments, while latching on the Federated Suns as the "bastion of peace, freedom, prosperity, justice & security".
I don't hate the Capellans, I love to hate them. Important difference. I wouldn't change a thing about them, besides maybe better crystallizing their whole, like, stealth, spec ops theme going on. Unlike the Word of Blake, which I just hate, and would want to change them so much we're better off just redrafting them.
I would love to see more Draconis Combine centered novels that add more good protagonists. They are awesome faction that has a dearth of memorable characters.
My favorite story about Clan Ghost Bear is that time they conquered a planet via a game of Football
"Hey guys, let challenge them to a game they've never heard of."
"What did you have in mind Jimmy?"
"Football!"
"You mean Soccer?"
"No the other ancient sport that only a select group of people played."
"Oh nice one! We are the only ones who play THAT sport."
Clan Ghost Bear: "That is literally our favorite sport! Yes! We accept. And to make it fair, we will only send 12 Elementals. They will be offence, defence, and special teams."
@@christopherhartford5066 And the BEST PART?
Sheliak, the planet in question, managed a three-point field-goal thanks to the insane gumption of their old Pro Quarterback managing a 50 yard drive!
50 yards and a Kick after they had sent two quarterbacks and an constant stream of players to the hospital.
The Ghost Bears wanted to adopt him on the spot, but as he told them, after that game he's retired.
I like Clan Wolverine, they've got to be out the somewhere
That's their claim to fame after all.
@@DonaldWWitt That also highlights one of the things I like about Ghost Bear. They're willing and eager to adopt the most skilled people opposing them, but gracious enough to not push it if they refuse like he did. It brings a bit more of a sense of Honour to them than just sticking to the rigid Clan Honour system through thick and thin. Plus, they're the more family oriented Clan which makes them a bit more relatable.
Let's face it, with how they constantly fight amongst themselves, it's actually pretty admirable that the Free Worlds League is still standing to begin with.
And best of all, fighting themselves gives themselves experience at least lol
Sounds like they are together because of writer fiat.... Lol.... Until next time!
You should read more of the Lore ;)
@@BigRed40TECH Remember, the greatest threat to a Marik...is a Marik. Glory to Marik!
They really do embody the meme of Willie from the Simpson's "Steiner and Marik are mortal enemies. Like Capellans and Marik. Or ComStar and Marik. Or Marik and Marik. Damn the Free Worlds League, they ruin the Free Worlds League!"
My all time favorite faction (as far as lore and how I read it) is the Taurian Concordat. I love how they feel like they mostly just want to be left alone, and when someone inevitably doesn't leave them alone even if they "lose" the Concordat still mangles them and just keeps fighting. They remind me of a scene from Gran Torino: "Get off my lawn".
The Taurians are definitely a fun faction. Paranoid Space Spain/Finland/Switzerland is not to be screwed with.
Another reason I like them is I can relate to them (or at least my perception of them) due to my living conditions growing up. My county is possibly the most rural and remote in my state, with the fastest police response time I can remember being a full 45 minutes (a tie between 2 calls, a domestic violence incident and a murder). This has lead me to the mindset of "if it's bad enough to call the police for you're on your own", and accordingly I sleep with a handgun on my nightstand and a shotgun by my bed.
Taurian hate of the inner sphere has literally outlived the star league
You missed acouple of areas. The old west of the US with cowboys and Indians
I favor the Taurians because they’re the only actual functioning democracy in the setting.
As a Rasalhauge player, having a best friend who's a Combine player, well there's a reason why for Christmas he gave me a full star of Clan Elementals.
Lol at least it wasnt a Combine mech.
In my battletech campaign I'm playing with friends, we call them RazzelDazzel. Been taking a lot of contracts to fight the Combine right now as the year we are playing is currently 3048
that is an amazing christmas present and fun lore reference all in one box...
R.I.P. most of rassaulhaugge 3034 - Clan Invasion
@@temp3608 think you got the date wrong there bud. By like, 16 years...
@@christopherhartford5066 eh a childhood is close enough for me
also i literally copy pasted that off google as the result of ''when was rassaulhaugge founded'' so google lied
Man that Vegeta comment about CJF was so hilarious on point I'm still recoiling haha. Another cracking vid Red, even if my own rankings different I can't fault your explanations of why those that made it into your list did.
Edit: I've said it before on your channel but I agree that the level of irl hatred for the Capellans is super bizarre, like some people I think get a little too serious into the fictional politics of the sphere haha.
I would say their bizarre hatred against the Capellans are mainly due to their reptilian animosity against communism (most likely from Tex's fanbase who're fanning the flames for some times) or a more relatable animosity against a specific "hostile/unfriendly" nation IRL (that's not what Capellan is largely based on, but politically relatable) that has been ingrained into their brains for many years
And I will feel grossly scorned if they convince themselves that the atrocities committed by both the Clans & the Draconis Combine are nowhere worse than the Cappie commies
The Capellans aren't communists.
@@BigRed40TECH though it's difficult to convince those guys otherwise
I just wish the FWL had gotten more love during the 3025-3049 era, in terms of the novels. Davion and Steiner get a ton, the Combine gets some, and even the Capellans get some time during the Warrior Trilogy, but there's so little material with the League that it's sad.
Agreed
Totally. I have always been a FWL fan-boy.
I love the FWL. I love the factionalism, and honestly, I like the Knights of the Inner Sphere. I find that the Knights represent both the attempt of the "Mariks" to create a lyran like order, but it only really served to create a double face of the FWL, the honorable knights and everyone else trying to undermine the order in the most FWL way
You hit all my favorites but one- Clan Nova Cat! Always liked those scrappy kitties, being the most spiritual of the clans and eventually siding with the inner sphere after the rebirth of the star league.
It's just a shame their namesake mech is, despite my quite liking it's aesthetic, just a dumpsterfire in its base configuration.
The spiritual leanings are probably the result of hallucinations caused by prolonged normal helmet usage
A trait which they bred into their Warrior caste
@@johnarnold8485 even worse is the fact that in the current lore, they are dead and gone. Destroyed by Kurita for backing the more sane noble in a bid to right the faction. What few are left go by the splinter faction Shadow Cats (again) and are now in Marik space.
I'd blame it on ritualistic pyromania. They're obsessed with taking vineers to burn... but mechs have a lot of chemicals, so between physical exhaustion required to prepare for the Rite of Vision, and probably stuff like burning coolant/myomer/paint, that can't be good for sanity.
It's not all hopeless, as the previous Nova Cats who joined the Second Star League then Republic became Spirit Cats, and many of them ran around in confusion during the Dark Age, But also settled in the Clan Protectorate. That's a combination of both RepoTS remnants, Spirit Cat converts, and old Nova Cat remnants.
Plus Minoru's actual Nova Cat refugees (which admittedly aren't many).
The situation is still certainly bleak, but far from hopeless. Jaguars survived worse, and Cats are the better clan, IMO.
Despite their track record of screwing everyone else over, and being plagued constantly by the Social Generals, House Steiner’s Lyran Commonwealth remains in my top five. They make some of my favorite mechs like the Commando, Bushwacker, Wolfhound, and Zeus, and I find that some of their brigades don’t necessarily subscribe to the “promotion by payment’ mentality, like the Donegal Guards or Lyran Regulars. I hope Trillian can keep it together in the fights to come
They fell out of my favourites list over the last year, but I still like them.
The Lyran Alliance is every bit as sneaky as the Capellan's, one of their leaders ordered her mother killed with a bomb and implied it was one of her brothers.
Used to be Draconis Combine due to me being half japanese. Changed to the Capellans when I got older as I starting to favour underdog factions. Just loved how they manage to hold on to being a great house even though clearly being the weakest by quite a margin. Also great lore and interesting mechs.
The Confederation is an awesome faction. They get an honourable mention because I think they're such badasses.
@@BigRed40TECH . You have to be. It's easy being a winner with plenty of mech factories, large officer corp, vast manpower and tons of money to replenish losses. Capellans make-do-with-what-we-have attitude has kept them in the fight. As well as alternatives like deadly special forces, mercenaries and fanatic indoctrination of soldiers.
Not so weak anymore by the beginning of the ilClan era. The Capellans along with the newly reborn FWL are a powerhouse factions that could resist the ilKhan's tyranny to some degree
From what I understand, from Sun Tzu Liao and onwards they reformed a lot and became much more decent people, Leadership wise at least
i honestly dont know how the capellans are still around... they just refuse to die
My favorite factions are the Capellan Confederation and Clan Jade Falcon. Funnily enough, they're both green and have swords in their faction symbol.
Loved the Capellans for their interesting take on citizenship, their refusal to lay down and die despite everything thrown at them, and their mechs. Also loved them for their emphasis on combined arms, their scrappy underdog status, and the fanatacism of their citizenry.
Jade Falcon became my favorite clan mainly after reading the Jade Falcon trilogy. They're my first deep dive view into how the clans work. I like their ferocity in battle, their unashamed crusaderness, as well as their funny, cartoon villain depiction in the Battletech cartoon. But if I were to sum my favorite Clan Jade Falcon trait, it would be with this quote from "I am Jade Falcon"
The distance between the surface of Dogg seemed formidable. The way to the elevator would be as pitch dark as ever and the elevator the same monstrosity of a contraption. The odds were astronomically against her. "What possible advantage could you mean?" Karlacc asked. "My advantage?" Joanna said as she opened the door all the way and stepped through it. "Yes." "I am Jade Falcon."
I quite like Steiner, the idea of social generals and such a powerful nobility is both interesting and funny to me. My favourite faction, however, is most probably the Northwind Highlanders, I love how they keep Scottish traditions and military identity alive, as well as the identity of the Royal Black Watch Regiment.
Does this mean you like Clan Jade Falcon too, or just the Hoghlanders and Black Watch?
@@christopherhartford5066 Jade falcon doesnt really have as the scottish vibe to it that the Highlanders do, from what I've read. They're alright, not my favourite clan (ghost bear) but jade falcon's pretty cool
@@christopherhartford5066 I mean...any Steiner fan is almost obligated to hate the dirty birds.
@@thelordchancellor3454 Guten Nacht, Freund! I've been a Steiner fan / player since the early '90s when I first got into BT, and the Bears are my favorite clan. I prefer the Protectorate of Donegal for the Irish-flavor. I was all-in on the FedCom, too. In the '90s, I preferred the 6th Lyran Guard, but once the Civil War started, I shifted to the 10th, since they remained loyal to Victor while the 6th supported Katherine. And I won't lie...the Animated Series played a role in my love of the FedCom, as well as turning me against the dirty birds entirely. Several people in my area that played BT were die-hard dirty birds' fans, so I'm sure that fueled my hatred, too. I started playing Ghost Bears as soon as I picked up the _CityTech_ 2nd Ed. boxed set.
I'm much newer to BattleTech, with you being my major entry point, this is great to know, and for my part, I've really grown to like the Lyrans. There's something really delightful about the dynamic of theirs which to my mind feels a bit like the HRE, and that disconnect between their truly fantastic 'Mechs and strategic planners, and the atrociously incompetent but over-geared commanders. It's always a fun dynamic to see, and my love of the Commando... Commando is my favorite Light of all time, where it looks amazing and is similarly useful as a 'Mech.
Oh Steiner's great. They used to be my favourite. I've just slowly lost interest in them. I don't dislike them by any means, they're just not in my top list anymore :)
@@BigRed40TECH Aye, I will also say, you've been slowly pushing me to the words of Blessed Blake. They're really quite an interesting force being that they're responsible for *everything* but have a reason, which is great to read about.
Let it be known that Blake's light will bring salvation to all mankind.
The most dangerous thing to a Marik is a Marik, but glory to Marik!
Considering they had an imposter calling the shots for a while, they did well for themselves during the clan invasion.
Glory to Marik!
They still do have an imposter calling the shots.
Nice overview. You make good cases here. Next I'd be interested in seeing your bottom ranked factions and hearing why they land where they do... but that would be a lot more controversial.
No bottom ranked faction video is planned. Too negative imo.
@@BigRed40TECH Number one would be the wolf clan.
@@thunberbolttwo3953 Wolf is always number 1.
@@BigRed40TECH Agreed.
I fall in love with the Awesome before I even knew about BattleTech, and I have a fascination of The Austrian-Hungarian empire. So when I heard that the FWL has both, it became my favorite faction.
The FWL National Anthem XD: ua-cam.com/video/yRGgl9KT9rE/v-deo.html&ab_channel=Folksongs
@@BigRed40TECH of course it’s about Artillery!
Word of Blake faithful here. Looking forward to the day they return to the Sphere in glory, having gone so far off the deep end they came back onto dry land. Let 'em give the Clanners front row seats to what a REAL invasion looks like, just as they originally intended to.
Blake lives in death! The Technology of Peace!.. whoops, that's lifted from other friendly neighbour religious mega-corp.
My Top five has changed a lot over the years but currently it's:
5) Marian Hegemony
4) Taurian Concordat
3) Clan Goliath Scorpion
2) Clan Ghost Bear
1) Free Rasalhague Republic
All pretty great choices here. I'm more of a periphery player myself but Clan Ghost Bear are definitely the best of the NPCs from up north. Liking states with both their flaws and their strengths is far greater than pretending they're perfect too.
I love them for their flaws.
Yes!! Literally, ghost bears is why I got into hobbying! When I found out that the ghost bear game I grew up playing over and over was actually a table top game and there were minis I could paint I dove in! Now I’m a commissioned mini painter discovering this whole world of hobbying I knew nothing about!
From the beginning, I was a fan of House Steiner and a lover of the Archon Katrina 😊
I was glad of the Federated Commonwealth creation and sad for its end 😭😁
I am a great fan of the Hatchetman. Despite its many flaws, it looks so great with its xenomorph look 😁
Still learning about all the factions, but rn my favorite is the Federated Suns... for pretty much opposite reasons to yours. I love that they try (even when they fail) to be the good guys, and that they, more than any other faction, try to be like noble knights. I also really like the sword&sun symbol, easily the most distinct out of the 5 great houses. I've started learning more about rasalhague though and they seem pretty cool. They also have an amazing symbol.
Sword + Sun is pretty nifty. :P
I don't know why the narrator uses the old names for the Davions and the Lyrans. After the civil war, They were the Federated commonwealth for house Davion and Lyran Alliance for the Steiners.
@@drmayeda1930 Even before the Federated Commonwealth civil war it was dead. The civil war was Katherine Steiner Davions atempt to force herself onto the Davion.
fed suns made a lot of mechs, such as the victor, centurion, and dervish, and well as having great lore
only downside in my opinion IS THEY WILL NOT LET ME REPAIR MY MECHS IN MW5!
i wanna help with cappelan invasion but i cant do that if i cant fix my mechs awaguoiaskjga
@temp3608 You gotta go into that quest line with pretty close to a battalion of mechs in you hanger.
I went into it with 15 mechs lost 3 and 2 pilots and got 5 mechs and 25 million C-bills in return.
My first love when it comes to Battletech factions will always by the Eridani Light Horse. They captured my heart when I first came across Battletech via the CamoSpecs book oh so many long years ago back around 1990. A large part of why I don't care for the Jihad and Dark Ages is how they were handled in those time frames. Second for me is the Federated Suns and rounding out my top three is the Lyran Commonwealth which slide below the Suns once they devolved into the Lyran Alliance. Clan Ghost Bear slides in as my number four faction but that is mainly because I enjoy the time frames of the First Succession War up to roughly 3030 best.
My problem is that my love of a faction keeps turning into units of Battletech minis. I have a full regiment each of Eridani Light Horse, Donegal Guards, a couple of FedSuns militia, and then a couple clusters worth of Ghost Bears.
I think the Taurian Concordat is the most interesting non-Clan faction to me. As the Clans go, the Star Adders and Diamond Sharks would be at the top of the list. Honorable mentions go to Hell's Horses and Ghost Bears though.
Unique choices! Nothing wrong with that :)
Great Choices! The Star Adders are such an under appreciated clan. I wish they had played a bigger part in the lore.
@@AdairCorbin I'm just predicting the future for fun, but I could see them leading a second invasion of the Inner Sphere. Home Clans vs. Spheroid Clans.
@@Linkous12 I would enjoy that a lot. Especially they are actually threatening and really doubled down on the trueborns only thing.
Comstar, FWL, Rasalhauge, Ghost Bear, Arano Restoration (I know, but I really loved BT2018. One of my favorite games in the last 10 years.)
I really loved how well they fleshed out the Arano Restoration. They were immediately added to my headcanon.
I never thought much of the FWL when I was younger, but recently I have really started finding them interesting, and their storyline in the IllClan era is one of my favorites of that Era. (Edit: Spelling)
Sven’s videos made me fall in love with the Taurians. I still don’t really know much still beyond the succession wars yet, so much option pool is pretty limited.
Loved the ranking list and agree with a lot of your points. Comstar fascinated me as the esoteric masters of communication who played everyone against everyone.. and the brilliant glory of Tukayid. Of the true heirs of the star league holding their ground against the pretenders with guile, skill, and battlemechs is legendary... hm, I seem to be biased.
My personal favorite in the Draconis Combine. As villainous as they have been or been portrayed in many cases, a lot of the time I feel like they weren't 'cruel' or 'treacherous' as they were just smart. They played their hands as best they could and have some great leaders, anti-heros, and just amazing campaigns throughout their run.
Also I love PPCs and Dragons. And they feed this need.
Like Comstar, hate Word of Blake. Simple as.
As someone who started with 3rd edition of the tabletop way back when... (i convinced my younger brother to split the price of the box, boy did we have a ton of fun with that first set)... The Combine has truly been one of the roller coaster factions alternately being both villainous and heroic. And my first fave combine person was Theodore Kurita!
You wanted a list, here's you list in no particular order aside the first place:
1. ComStar (great health insurance, amazing benefits, you come for paying job and because your parents worked there, you stay for Blessed Blake.
2. Magistracy of Canopus. I really love the Space Vegas for the House Always Wins aesthetic. You can't even win the war against them, without losing in the end. They will subvert you, bleed you dry and just wait, until you leave. FWL learnt that lesson in Reunification Wars. Them getting Canopus as their adversary was truly "drawing a short stick".
3. Clan Sea Fox. Weaponized capitalism. It's in my blood. It's in my nature. It speaks to me.
4. Taurians. Thomas Calderon is one of my favourite personalities of BattleTech. The man branded as insane and paranoid. The man who saw the writing on the wall and was preparing for eventuality of the French Pirate Kingdom throwing hands again. The man who wasn't vindicated because Clan Invasion happened. Also, I love "get off my lawn" approach.
5. Draconis Combine - they are great, they have some of my favourite mechs and they are unabashedly evil most of the time. Moustache twirling samurai men with mechs, "honour", "manifest destiny" and enough guts to not die horribly to either of the powerhouses of the IS around them
I enjoyed hearing your thoughts on your favourite factions. The Free Worlds League and The Federated Suns also make my list in the same general order for similar reasons. Like you, my personal list is heavily influenced by video games. So number one for me has to be the Arano Restoration. I loved Harebrained Schemes' BattleTech game so much. One of my favorite video games ever and my favorite BattleTech product ever. The original (pre-fall) Star League would be number two. That is mostly because of the reverence so many people in-universe have for it and how they talk about it. It became this amazing foundational myth for me. Even learning more about how it really was over time has never taken that away - I still like them a lot.
Jade Falcon fan over here. I like that they were 'perpetual bad boys of the storyline' and hold high hope for JF Remnant led by Jiyi Chistu. Pretty much like Ghost Bears, they are trying to change. And while GB tried to change their society by merging with Inner Sphere elements, JFR seems to be trying to change by being more adaptive. It can be an interesting evolution, if they do it right. Also, quite surprised that you are familiar with Yugoslavia situation. Not many people are...
Same here although I'm not sure which of the 2 splinter factions of Jade Falcon I like the best,the one led by Clan Chistu or the merchant breakoff one.
The classic Jade Falcons were also fun because mixed in with their vile personnel were warriors of great honor as well as skill and power. If you were casting another remake of "The Magnificent Seven Mechwarriors", you would want one of them to be someone with a Pryde bloodname who became dezgra because of something that their integrity made them do or kept them from doing. The Jade Falcons often reminded me of TNG/DSG Klingons.
Such a well-done video, researched with your inner thoughts and personal feelings added to your experiences. 👍
I passed on Battledroids at the Game Keeper store at the local mall in 1984, and pulled the trigger the following year when I graduated high school. Davion & Marik were my choices that first year.
When I started reading the Battletech books as a kid it was the Wolf’s Dragoons story with House Kurita. I really fell in love with both groups.
Wolves at the Border. A very good Samurai Tragedy book with big Mechs
@@disgraced101 Wolves at the Border and Heir to the Dragon are the best BT books out there. And Wolf's Dragoons will always be special and likeable, just for their cool back story regarding their secret mission. Usually I don't like overpowered protagonists and it may look like a kid's choice but Wolf's Dragoons are just cool. Kell Hounds otoh are boring af.
That's what's fun about the Battletech universe, there's so much lore that every passing month I feel like my tastes change in regard to factions.
I used to simp hard for the Cappelan Confederation, now it's all about who the highest bidder is. :D
Nice video man! Still love the Republic as ever, but I also love Canopus, and want to see both Filtvelt Coalition and Fronc Reaches get back the world's they lost and thrive/grow!!
Forever loyal to the Federated Suns! The good guy faction.
I like the FWL as well they really are full of Byzantium intrigue.
They're amazing, I love them for it. lol
Capellan Confederation has always been my favorite faction. Yes, they can be strangely cartoony at time (Maximilian Liao and Operations Doppelganger) but they have spirit. They are that stubborn person that refuses to go down. Plus, they have some interesting quirks like how you become a citizen in their society. I think overall their differences make them weirdly refreshing. Plus, being the underdog for the longest time made them be unique with how they handle their situations. The Trinity alliance for example.
Plus they got Death Commandos and I think they are super neat. The Warrior Houses are pretty cool too being like warrior monks.
Purple Bird Stronk. Great video. Thank you.
Mines has to be the Arkhab Legion from the Draconis Combine. For one, I love their fast hit and run battle tactics; It's perfect when used with medium bruisers like the Wolverine which can punch way above their weight class. Furthermore, any faction that gave the Dracos such a heavy beat down that they were forced to accept the cultural Independance of said faction is a totally bad as faction in my books.
My list would probably go
5: Jade Falcon: The Clanniest Clan to have ever Clanned, the Vegeta comment just nailed why I love them so much and I really like using their paint schemes in MW5, especially for the Clan mods.
4: Lyran Commonwealth: Steiner Scout memes aside, I've always looked at the Commonwealth as the Successor State that had its shit together the most and was the state that I'd probably pick to be stuck in if I suddenly teleported into Battletech, at least until *she* shows up.
3: Capellan Confederation: I instantly fell in love with the Raven when it showed up in HBS' Battletech and it just grew from there. I actually like them for some of the same reasons that Red likes the Combine, but I find the Capellans have the more interesting history/politics.
2: Star League and the SLDF: Though it hasn't existed as a faction in a long, long time, whether it's stuff like the Goddamn Black Watch or the history of units that stayed in the Sphere like the ELH, there's just so many awesome and tragic things of note that really got me attached to its legacy; I also really like using their paint schemes and Royal Mechs are always really neat to have.
Though on that note....
1: Comstar: Praise Blake.
My honorable mentions would probably be the Taurians, Mercenaries in general and Rasalhague
Taurian Concordat
Free Words League
Clan Ghost Bear
Clan Jade Falcon
And Finally last be very much not least
Star League.
I like your feeling towards the Word of Blake and then also playing Word Barers. It's really interesting how the factions we choose often are heavily influenced by or own world views. As Dark Angel, I like to quote the Lion saying, "Loyalty is it's own reward."
Let me also just say, the Free World's League strikes me as those siblings that are always fighting until an outsider picks on one of them and then all the others come together to ruin the outsiders day. Then the bullied party is like, "Thanks guys!" Then they get their hat knocked off and it's like, "Shut up nerd."
I knew that the league would be number one. I wasn't surprised by much of this list with the exception of the Jade Falcons
I always enjoyed using Comstar as a vague and overpowered enemy during the succession wars for my Mechwarrior tt campaign. One major rule to remember is that death comes quickly to characters who climb out of their mechs.
The culture of the Draconis Combine is amazingly deep and interesting.
I'd usually try to call myself a Fed-Rat, but the history behind the Combine is amazing.
I may have gotten carried away with this comment due to commenting right before sleep, I hope you enjoy a journey through 25+years of this series following me throughout my life.
My favorite factions for different eras of my time playing the game:
MW2 - "Clan Wolf so lame, which makes me sad 'cuz wolves are cool. Jade Falcon evil, so they are interesting, also they are underdogs. I want them!". I was 8 at the time. MW3 I didn't have, and MW4 Vengeance I didn't have an incentive to think about factions
MWO Era (Faction play caused me to do a deep dive on lore, and what mechs each faction uses)
Kurita 'cuz Dragon was one of my favorite designed mechs at the time, and Jenner is so friggin fun to play. Also I love PPCs, MRMs, and the whole "way of the samurai" stuff. Also the concept of vibroblades is awesome.
Then Clan Ghost Bear for Mad Dog usage, the family/sticking together thing, also being patient for the right moment to attack swiftly and heavily.
Then Clan Goliath Scorpion for minding their own business compared to other clans so they can recover lost technology. Also tests of precision, and the "dance of scars" is interesting to me. Also funny to me on multiple levels that it seems like pilots want large lasers, and the engineers just give them missiles and autocannons.
MW5 + BattleTech Video game + BattleTech Tabletop era (current)
Liao originally because with so much Inner Sphere action, it thrust Catapult to being the favorite Mech. Also Raven is 2nd place being 2nd place because visuals and concept alone. Also stealth, using environment and such is kinda my jam when it comes to playing whenever it is something I can do.
Temporary 4-way tie. Lyrans (because bigger + better fits playing with casual friends in MW5 which is the majority of my playtime with the MechWarrior/BattleTech), Kurita (Samurais+PPCs), Liao (Catapult+Raven+Stealth+JJs), and Marik (Seems to also love PPCs, and seems to like LRMs more than anyone else)
Which all led to the final choice (as of this comment) with picking Marik, which I found funny because it's what he chose in the video. However, since I don't have extensive knowledge of everything every faction has, so Marik feels more "normal" compared to other houses, but it feels like it represents the Inner Sphere the best. Yes people are struggling to work together, yes they are probably backstabbing each other when it's convenient, but they will team up against new threats (ex clans and blakists) even if it's temporary. Marik ain't trying to cover up what humanity is like in a warlike environment like any other faction and they embrace it.
Marik has the most mechs that I love a lot and that is one of the focuses of the setting compared to other factions that have 1-2 "must haves" and then I just don't care about any others. Trebuchet, Awesome, Stalker (go-to assault) for some Marik Staples. Then others they use a ton of Hunchback (my go-to funtime medium mech), Battle Master, Crusader, Quickdraw, Wolverine (6M). Also doubt comstar will ever be playable in any sort of game, so Thug gets a mention since Marik is the only house that uses them in the succession wars it seems. Again, I can be totally wrong, this is just based off what I read in Sarna and faction assignment stuff.
Special mention to the Orion, since I was heavy into clans and was kinda like "what the heck is this?" when I ran into inner sphere only stuff in MWO. Thought Orion was the most boring looking mech possible initially. So doing research I kinda liked Orion because it was Kerensky's mech so I liked it a bit more. Then after looking at other inner sphere stuff and how a lot of mechs work, I now love how everything comes together to let the Orion have it's identity. So Orion kinda not only is a representative of the Marik but also the Inner Sphere. Soo, there's a massive bias towards Marik because of that. I might not be able to use it with my friends running cheese builds all the time in the MechWarrior games, but I've started to really prefer using it as the big beefy boy in medium/heavy lances having a weapon for each situation so my friends can have fun with glass cannony builds.
On a sillier note, they are purple and that is my favorite color! Also apparently Marik has an aerial infantry division dedicated to branths. Which are basically dragons. I'm a massive sucker for dragons..... You'd think they would've had those in Kurita.
So current top 5 would probably be something like this:
#1 Marik
#2 Liao
#3 Clan Ghost Bear
#4 Kurita
#5 Clan Goliath Scorpion
Clans could be debatably #1 because I love clan tech, and the look of clan mechs more. And various lore reasons. I'm just bombarded with Inner Sphere games lately so I might be having an inner sphere bias because of that.
I've also been slowly liking Comstar more as time goes on. I used to be in the dark about them in general, and anything I heard was people hating them, but now I know more about them, they are interesting to me since they make quite the impact and give something to talk about (and not just 'cuz I love crabs, king crabs, and thugs).
Although not really a faction... The Kell Hounds and Wolf's Dragoons are my favourite groups in Battletech
Dragoons is where my Battletech waifu is from. I'm in love with the Black Widow. And mostly because she is a badass who pilots the best mech. The Warhammer.
Cappellans are great from the way they push the gameplay into new directions. (Stealth etc) and I hope that trend continues going forward.
I'm fairly new to the universe. I've read the first Grey Death legion trilogy where the Combine are painted as rather villainous until near the end, and now I'm reading "Wolves on the Border". That book has gone a long way in humanizing them even as it makes me hate some aspects of the Combine again. So yeah, I'm a little conflicted. Great video, by the way.
You're going to find everyone are bastards in Battletech. They all justify their bad behaviour by saying "Well, we have to or X", but no one is good.
Davion breaks ceasefires consistently, and play it off as them being smart (ironically while saying you can't trust Capellans lmao)
Kurita is a war-crimes factory
Liao is an oppression-hole
Marik is wildly corrupt and cruel
Steiner is incredibly cruel and ambitious.
Like, they're all bad-guys. They've all got their bright-spots too.
The factions where you start having more trouble finding silver-linings are like, the Clans, and Comstar. Ironically, the 2 descendants of the Star League government. lmao
@@BigRed40TECH it's almost as if humans are the common problem in all the groups. 😏
Love the MW4M main menu's sounds in the background.
Sussed you out early in your Battletech coverage campaign. All it took was one "Glory to Marik!" in your comments.
But I agree with your assessment of the FWL. They are interesting because of their history, nuance, and ideology. The fact that FWL functions at all in-spite of the diversity of character, cultures, and governments is a testament to how unified the peoples of the Free Worlds League really are.
But never forget: The greatest danger to a Marik is another Marik.
"Glory to Marik!"
Good choices! My inner sphere favorites: are Federated Suns, Draconis Combine. Clans: Smoke Jaguar & Jade Falcons, they make great villains. Capellans I usually have as inner sphere antagonists.
5. Raealhague part of Lyran Commonwealth
4. Rasalhague part of Draconis Combine
3. Free Rasalhague
2. Clan Ghost Bear
1. Ghost Bear / Rasalhague Dominion
I love the vindicator, I travel to their lands just for the hunt of collecting more. I have always been a fan of the Davion Faction, and the Wolf Dragoons. But honestly, the Free Rasalhague League reminds me of times in the Marine Corps. Usually we get handed down equipment, and we fight with what have and are highly motivated... chanting, cursing, and basically always ready for a fight.
I played MW@ with the Ghost Bear expansion as well. I LOVED that game. I also played the BattleTech and Mechwarrior TTRPGs throughout the 90's and early 2000's. I helped the people that play tested MW3 (RPG) in San Diego at a game shop in Hazard Center. I got my start when I located them while I was still stationed at Point Loma on a fast attack submarine. When I was discharged, I stayed there a few years and got to play in their tournaments. I moved back to Arkansas shortly after 9/11.
My favorite character was a noble in House Davion. I played him just like you described, portraying him as a noble hero, even convincing almost everyone I knew that I was the good guy. I started my own mercenary unit and exploited the stars. It was a blast.
That Ghost Bear expansion was badass back in the day. I vaguely remember that mission fighting Becker. GG
outside of the wolfs gotta be the federated commonwealth as number 1 for me. the old school medieval politicking and incomitance merged with traditions and blood lines is just a fun faction.
My favorite factions are the Marian hegemony because space Rome and the FWL because it reminds me of imperial Russia and the HRE
I also realize how much I love the combine as a faction I love to wage war against. They are just such a great opposition faction.
An insightful video into the host is always appreciated. I hope you christmas was a good one and may you stay safe and enjoy your new years.
And as always, you keep Makin the content, I'll keep watchin
It's always interesting how, as we grow older, we appreciate the supposed "bad guys" more. We learn to appreciate how unabashedly evil, cunning, vile, or broken they may be. We learn to appreciate the role they play in the lives of our "heroes".
As I'm still new to battletech and my interests are mostly mech driven I have no real substantial view of things of the greater world of Battletech.
I was initially drawn to ghost bears because bears are my favorite animals. As I read more into them I learned of how their culture shares a few root beliefs of my own. it helps to drive me even closer to them.
Another clan I like is wolverine. They were everything kernsky wanted from the clans and though im sad they were murdered, I appreciate that is exactly why they couldn't exist. What makes me sad is that, from what I have read, I have not seen a redemption arch for Clan Raven who felt bad about their part in Wolverine's anihilation.
(As a small aside, I'm kinda mad the double lbxac20 kodiak is a Raven exclusive mech. How could they give my double shotguns bear to frost birb?! Rude!)
While I started as a FedSuns fanboy back in the 80's, I slowly drifted to appreciate the FWL. They've never been the hero faction, so they don't suffer from the tropes that afflicted the FedSuns and Dracs. They did have the most under appreciated scenario book, "Rolling Thunder". I loved the "me against my brother; my brother and me against the world" world view. The weak central authority means the FWL is incredibly ineffective on offense, but also means its forces are usually well rested and repaired for defensive ops. The lack of editorial attention meant the FWL and it's periphery filled out more organically. I kinda loved that the FWL basically sat out the Clan Invasion, with a heroic "we got your backs bro's!" to the FedComs and Combine, heroically selling weapons and equipment but not sending any units. And when people (mainly FedComs) tried to throw shade, Marik fanboys would respond with a "trade any dead kids recently?" While not a fan of the Knights of the Inner Sphere, it does sound like something Marik would do. Get all the ideological types in one unit so they're easier to keep an eye on.
Of the Clans, I'd go for the Smoke Jaguars. To me the Clans will always be the bad guys, and the Smoke Jaguars did this best. There is a scene in of the the novels where Kuritan partisans killed some Jaguars with a bomb, so the Jags threaten to blow up an entire neighborhood in reprisal (they may have actually destroyed after their initial threat was ignored by the rebels, can't remember). At the last moment a Buddhist monk shows up and claims responsibility for the attack. The Jags don't even question him or how he could be responsible. They kill him on the spot and go home. It never even enters their mind that he might be lying, sacrificing his life to spare other innocents. That's how alien their thought process is. Out of all the invasion clans, to me the Smoke Jaguars were the most consistently portrayed as the traumatized off-spring of a warrior ethos gone rogue.
I'd argue the only thing that makes sense is that Thomas Halas was likely a Terran, and Terrans in Battletech all seem to love Camelot, so the KOTIS make sense under those conditions.
But I don't think there would be organic support for them, or such an idea, in the FWL.
I always thought the FWL was an Underdog faction even more than the Capellans. The Capellans never-say-die spirit has time and again gotten them through the worst the Sphere threw at them, but the FWL is a house of cards that'll fall in on itself at every inopportune time. It is funny though that I only began reading about them because I fell in love with the Awesome prior to even really looking into the FWL itself. I never thought they were anything to write home about then, but now I'll stand by Marik no matter how many rabbit holes they dig for themselves to fall in [and of course preferably in one my darling Awesomes].
My favorite factions are probably the Wolf Dragoons having been introduced to the franchise via Mechassault on the original Xbox. Then I started playing Mechwarrior-clix where I was first drawn to the Highlanders because of their more armored than average units. After the Falcon's Prey and Age of Destruction sets and the demise of the Highlanders I found myself playing a lot of House Davion and Clan Jade Falcon and got really into their respective lores which also got me interested in the Federated Commonwealth and thus House Steiner as a "complement" to House Davion. My Honorable Mentions would have to be Clan Nova Cat because of their cool mechs in the clix game and unfortunate demise, as well as the Republic of the Sphere because while I wasnt a huge fan of them in the clix game, I appreciate them from a lore standpoint.
That music on the FWL, brings back so many great memories. 6 medium lasers filled with double heat sinks.
Yes, the free worlds league! I was starting to worry that I was the only one. My battletech group are all clans and Steiner fans. But I've always thought purple bird is best
Holup.
MegaMek games in the mid-2000's.
Playing House Marik.
Raiding the DC whenever possible.
*checks maps*
I have questions. Questions to which the answer is probably a worlds-long supply train, a whole lot of salvaging, and a few hospital wards worth of migraines for stellar cartography as they redraw the boundaries YET AGAIN (grumble grumble third time this WEEK).
I got my start playing a Wolverine-M pilot in the Iron Guards of House Marik. Trying to use Wolverine's and Hermes against Zeus and Stalkers was how I cut my teeth in table top. I may have drifted into more DCMS focus in later years, but that was only because the lore totally ignored Marik during and after the 4th Succession Wars.
Love the shout out to the Kodiak, my favorite mech in mw2 mercs!
Capturing one in MW2 Mercenaries is incredible.
I can't agree any more with your #1 pick. For literally decades, the FWL for me was just the "Oh yeah, they're over there doing... something. Probably fighting with each other, it doesn't matter." faction, since beyond the meh Ideal War, they just didn't get _any_ spotlight in the novels which formed the main way through which I got into the lore.
Only coming back around a year ago and reading my way through the DA novels I really got a good look into the FWL and found it to be the best, most interesting storyline they came up with in DA, and one they stuck with and kept alive and consistent to this day, which by itself is not something you can say about too many things from the DA novels. There's a reason I set my very first BT campaign to run in way over 20 years on a former Marik-Stewart Commonwealth world in the Republic just as it's about to go down. I really like what they did with the FWL and the Halas'es and really hope they keep that story running in interesting directions, with all the different factions, the troubled relations with the Confederation and Commonwealth, the Wolf Empire all around them and now even the Sea Foxes and Spirit Cats sitting in parliament, it makes the FWL by far the funnest mess this setting has to offer right now.
As a player that started playing back just as the 2nd edition box came out, I too enjoyed the Federated Suns but had a soft spot for the Wolf's Dragoons. As the Clans came out I was always interested in the past history of the IS. The Star League was and is a fascinating storyline I hoped and wished was expanded upon. The Periphery is also a weird and strange place. Listening to your and others as I now play Battletech with my sons, going came to basics and moving forward into the newer stuff, they ask me about the older times and they seem to enjoy the older Battletech, the Battletech I fell in love with and find myself looking back to. My sons, a few old friends, their sons and I started a campaign based off of my most favorite faction, Clan Wolverine/The Minnesota Tribe. We linked the Tribe with the surviving members of House Cameron in a comeback, coming out of the Deep Periphery facing off with Comstar Pre-Clan invasion, Pre-fourth Secession War out past the borders of the Cappellan Marches and Herotitus. It is a campaign based mostly in Battlespace with some planetary battles we hope, we literally just started 12/26/22. The Clan Wolverine forces lead by the Returning First Lord Cameron vs Comstar may not be for everybody but for us, its proofing to fuel back on the smoldering embers of this old player.
I pick Clan Wolverine as my top pick!
Star Adders stay winning
"Remember Tresscot and the lessons he passed on to his Clan"
Clan Jade Falcon is my number one because of their bird of prey theming, the color green, and relative pragmatism (especially after the Invasion) juxtaposed with their villainy and self-proclaimed traditionalism.
Smoke Jaguar is definitely great as that "bright burning candle" faction that went down swinging. The second spot in my top five is a contest between them, the Ghost Bears, Diamond Sharks/Sea Foxes, and Hell's Horses.
Hmmmmm my favorites are as follows
5. Ghost Bear
4. Wolverine, Thier dare to be different
3. FWL because of the "Yugoslavia" many different groups fighting amongst themselves yet strong enough to give headaches to their foes.
2. Draconis Combine, no better way to make your group better than to challenge in battle.
1. Davion perhaps because they were the first faction I played back in the 90s. That and they knew how to make a wedding interesting 🤣
Joined the FWL during "The Registry" glory days, playing on Mech2 Dos with 28.8k modems on dialup connections, with Kali being used as the meeting place. When the Reg failed "The Killing Zone"(TKZ) and the "Grand Council"(GC) took over. Coming from Australia most of the games were held in the US with crazy match times for me at 2 or 3 in the morning to compete in US timezones. I was ushered into the 12th Dragoons(White Sabres) and I have been FWL ever since. Learned how to lag shoot out to 1 second until we got our super-fast 56.6k modems up and running. Then it was down to 700ms. Hard to believe that was over 30 years ago.
The way I view the Federated Suns is simple - they have the best PR department in the setting.
I think my top five would be... Capellans, Comstar, DC, FedSuns, and Sea Fox. But I absolutely understand why you love the FWL. Every time I try to rate or describe factions, I always feel like I don't know enough about the FWL to do them justice.
Capellans; I love underdogs, and I find them and people's reaction to them hilarious.
Favorite IS mechs in MWO are stealth FLE-20 and RAC5 UM-K9. Favorite clan mech is PIR-2 laser boat.
Embrace the h8.
For many years House Steiner was my favorite solely for the reason that it was the first House book I bought and read.
Luthien's Clan invasion is where I started my Battletech addiction.
Nice!
I was a Davion simp until I learnt from Black Pants Legion that the Taurian Concordat told the Star League to go away and kept them away for 20 years.
Also they have a system named after my home city of Brisbane in BattleTech 2019 so that's a win. They definitely remind me of that Australian defiance and stubbornness I grew up around (even if they're not actually Australian)
Welp inspired. In my case lore color scheme and even if they just made a certain mech heres my top 5
1: the star league (closet humanity gets to being under one flag, if only they had a better system than feudalism for the king.)
2: clan diamond shark (mad cat2, most practical clan, aside from maybe wolverine. Make most of the really neat things that make the clans stand out.)
3: lyrain/Stiner (capitalism done, um okish. Probably in most cases about the best place to be a regular person.)
4: fed suns (they might stab you in the back but they will give you a heads up, plus they have the best flag.)
5 : clan wolf (mad cat that's really the most of reason, tho they definitely show what the clan could do with some basic sense and logistics. Image if the military of the other 19 where like this and came in united.)
Mentions in order
Clan ghost bear, the Capellans, Jade Flacon, Star Adder, smoke Jaguar (lovable villains)
And the bottom 5
5: mercenaries (why they are so prominent, I know lore a bit but geeze they really seem to be a thing just for IRL game reasons)
4: amaris (his faction and him just petty scum who wrecks the star league.)
3: the combine (probably the worst outside most of the clans to live in as a normal person, the scumbag moves they make and those samurai looking mech with swords are so out of place for me they are tacky and immersion breaking.)
2: the free worlds league (why do they exist)
1: com star (the crazy religious zealots somehow run the space internet and somehow have insane plot armor so they can do their crazy things because no one can figure out how to make the space internet work, makes zero sense to me)
I too was a DCMS hater in the beginning of my long trek down the Battletech lore path. This came from reading the Grey Death Legion trilogy where the DCMS were the main bad guys in that story arc. And let's be honest....House Kurita were MAJOR dicks during the Amaris Civil War and were the ones who kicked off the Succession Wars. It wasn't until the War of 3039 that they started to slowly change my opinion and get their shit together. Now I'm loving them and hope that I can take my two DCMS lances against family members in the future.
I actually really liked the Combine thanks to the GDL books. Especially Duke Ricol. The Price of Glory cemented him as a fan favorite for me.
@@justinjacobs1501 Just don't read "Wolves On The Border." It cemented my opinion that before the War of 3039, they are HUGE assholes.
I'm jealous that you had friends into Battletech as a kid!I just had my brother, and I love him, but he's one guy! You were lucky!
My friends got me into it lol
yeah, i remember clan GB from the expansion of mechwarrior 2. the thing i love about them aside from the Warden faction, is their familial ties, that is the basis of the clan lore & history. the future with clan GB & FRR is also good
5. Clan Ghost Bear - Of all the Clans, the Ghost Bears changed their thoughts on the Inner Sphere after Tukayyid and fundamentally changed.
4. Taurian Concordat - There's something about a Periphery nation ready to go full Tasmanian Devil against one of the most advanced Inner Sphere nation at the drop of a hat.
3. Federated Suns - Specifically, Hanse Davion and the War of 3039. Unifying with the Lyrans alone would be enough for the history books, but launching a major offensive against the rest of the Inner Sphere and surprising ComStar, that elevates Hanse to magnificent bastard.
2. ComStar - Wait, the telecom company has a military and has been spying on all the Inner Sphere to make sure none get ahead? The schism gave the setting a proper villain, the Word of Blake, who is willing to burn everything down out of spite.
1. Magitsracy of Canopus - they've gone from Periphery to player through politics and diplomacy. The alliance with the Capellans benefits both, giving Capellans extra military strength and some sanity injected into House Liao's bloodline and giving Canopus a way into the Inner Sphere.
Honourable Mention to the Capellans, who manage to survive despite the insanity of leadership and the predation of the Federated Suns and the Free Worlds League.
Ahh yes the purple birds also my favorite faction.
My League unit I run is actually called the Atrean Hoplites
As someone who played Mechwarrior 2 ghost bear I too love them from that game!
My favorite factions are two of the great houses Steiner and Davion. I love them because of the contract, with steiner and their "Throw what ever we got at it" and Davions "Honor, glory, and tactics" I also loved when they combined together then the Civil War to follow. But out of the two I have to say steiner is still my fav house. They are just nice to read into, I mean they got a God darn planet dedicated to murder for fun, whats not fun to love.
I feel a bit guilty thinking I kicked this off with memes, but I like hearing how people's well thought-out reasoning for liking specific factions. Especially when folks change their favorites over time. It's something that's unique to old, living settings. I'd love to see a series on all the factions considering the details you manage to dig up.
That said, I love the Purple Burb too. Reminds me of America; would much rather fight amongst themselves until some uppity foreigner talks trash, then they unite to kick their teeth in. The Falcons just because they are so memetastic and had some great characters like Horse, Johanna, Ravill, and Diana. I'm really enjoying the non-Wolf lapdog flavor of green turkeys in the IlClan era. Wolverines simply because being the proficient rebel is fun, and Go Blue! ComStar was great until they wield the fiat-bat too much or hard. Canopus is a honorable mention considering they are the most "free" in the setting, and they have some serious GoT-tier political intrigue potential.
You know, I feel like a friendship between a mechwarrior from FedSuns and one from the Combine would be interestimg
Unlikely given their home factions are mortal enemies, but imagine it, a brash, arrogant and idealistic knight being buds with a more tempered and uptight samurai
Free Worlds League....Purple Bird Strong!
That Purple Bird. So strong. So unified.
No one leave Purple Bird.
@@BigRed40TECH You can't leave Purple Bird
@@Tellos You're free to join. you're not free to leave.
Current favourite faction is Clan Star Adder, though not always so: With games like the original MechCommander and reading Exodus Road and Freebirth I liked the Smoke Jaguars, they did make for excellent and arguably tragic antagonists. Having recently read the Jade Phoenix and re-reading Freebirth I gained new appreciation for the Invasion era Jade Falcons. Overall however I am firmly in the Star Adder camp despite the lack of lore post-3085 and I do feel their actions in the WoR almost betrayed their nature as a Clan of Kerensky, their often demonstrated practical nature becoming a ruthless pragmatism.
Clan Wolf, Clan Ghost Bear, Draconis Combine and Capellan Confederation are all my favorite factions but if I had to pick one from those 4 then it would be Draconis Combine.
i thought this would be a "i Tell you about my top 5 Factions and why they are the Capellan Confederation" Video
I feel a lot of contentious (rather than just fun and self-aware, which I think is the majority of discourse despite some loud and needy voices in internet forums) factionalism in the battletech fanbase is the tendency to personally associate and moralize one faction (I don't think there's any truly moral faction the fractious BT universe, and most good PR should be taken as in setting PR), but there's few factions I don't like as even if they don't personally appeal to me as they see themselves, most just work so well as mustache twirling villains. And you need those in a fun setting. Its why I love the DC despite never having the urge to play them. It would be a more boring universe without em.
A totally fair take!
I don't dislike factions for their morality (I, after all, played Word Bearers), but I do think when in-universe they get white-washed is a bit... unsavory.
@@BigRed40TECH Oh yeah, indeed, I definitely don't dislike factions for their morality, and moralizing them after the fact in universe as sometimes happens with settings and authors always has some cognitive whiplash to it. It just seems a common trend when "my faction is better than yours" goes from good fun to not so fun, that personal moralizing gets involved. To me in a setting of warlords, some of whom are occasionally more or less bloodthirsty/discerning than the next, that probably shouldn't be the chief criteria for faction enjoyment. Ya gotta have those mustaches! (except the Amaris pencil mustache-like take on a fu-man-chu, I don't think anyone needs that kind of a mustache, although mustache aside, that's some top tier villainy)
I'm always curious about the hate towards the Capellans, they've been working their way up to being my personal favourite faction. Thanks for the video, it was great to hear your opinions on some of the factions and what drew you to your personal picks.
The bizarre animosity against the Capellans is a bad case of mixing their bad tastes on real life politics with science fiction - as they often compared the Confederation with real life nations ruled by authoritarian governments, while latching on the Federated Suns as the "bastion of peace, freedom, prosperity, justice & security".
I don't hate the Capellans, I love to hate them. Important difference. I wouldn't change a thing about them, besides maybe better crystallizing their whole, like, stealth, spec ops theme going on.
Unlike the Word of Blake, which I just hate, and would want to change them so much we're better off just redrafting them.
Clan Jade “You Dare Refuse My Batchall!” Falcons
Free Worlds has become a favorite as of lately. but it's tied with Clan Sea Fox. I tend to follow more the chaotic merc set up
5) Marian Hegemony
4) Ghost Bear
3) Federated Suns/Commonwealth
2) Free Rasalhague Republic
1) Comstar with religion
I would love to see more Draconis Combine centered novels that add more good protagonists. They are awesome faction that has a dearth of memorable characters.