BattleTech: Why Do We Love The Periphery Pirates?
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- Опубліковано 23 тра 2023
- What is the allure of the periphery pirates?
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Heh, Butte Hold
Pinning this.
@@MechanicalFrog It's Space French for Butt Hole.
@@cmdrhatchy9611 Aye Carumba...
Spot the 4channer!!
Butte Hold, often raided but never taken until the time of the Clans. Perhaps not even then?
I personally like the Periphery because it's more fun. But hey. That's just me.
It's a fun sandbox in which to play.
Retail violence instead of wholesale.
>number of planets nuked into a post apocalyptic hellscape by pirates : zero
Checkmake, "great" houses.
Pirates stick to more low-key violence and brutality.
True, but when your characters are past victims of sadist like Red Jack Ryan, the idea of romanticizing these murderers goes away. And when your character is a survivor who fought his way up into a mech and forming a unit just to kill such people, the research for the opfors shows that BT pirates are more vicious than most fantasy series. While Circinus (sp?) pirates and the folks from Tortuga are quite different, the idea of "gentlemen pirates" is rarely seen. I don't like the Clans storyline, but what really drives me to distraction is that Red Jack Ryan seems to have survived it. I would quite happily play a none-canon timeline where he is punished, preferably by my unit :P Each to their own, enjoy your games, and play things as you wish, this is just my .02 c-bills on the matter! ;)
The best thing about pirates in BT is that they give you an OpFor that you can purge guilt free. Even prisoners qualify for automatic summary hanging.
Life is full of little challenges.
Pirates can be treated as space orcs or galactic goblins, yes. Good experience and pay for a merc unit working in the Periphery and dreaming of a contract in the Inner Sphere. But, some pirates need to raid to maintain civilization on their home world, or have a grudge of long standing that lawful vengeance won't solve. Or they are bargain bin mercenaries who will do the dirty jobs that the richer, prouder units won't touch. Pirates can be what the campaign needs them to be, and as is often in Battletech, things aren't always as easy as they look at first.
Then there are those "pirates" who come in with strange Mechs and reinforced space suits for their Infantry, using strange language that almost sounds familiar...
I just want Catalyst to release the Corsair from MW 5 for the table top. I love that stupid thing! I mean it’s center torso is made out of a freaking bulldozer! What’s not to love?
That would be interesting.
With the Battlemech Manual its possible to stat it and calculate the BV
just one custom resin cast and record sheet away making it real
@@imadethistopostponi Where there's a desire for big stompy mechs, there's a way.
Some guys at this game shop i go to to play Battletech run pirate lances and what’s cool is they kitbashed all their mechs to look cobbled together and added airplane model pieces to look like they had pieces of metal welded on for extra armor. Inspired me to look into kitbashing myself.
That would be fun.
Honestly i just made my mechs pirates because I wanted to paint sharp toothed smiles on them. Pretty happy with the results. And it's incredibly easy to make stories for pick up games.
Red makes thing go faster. Spikes make them deadlier. This is fundamental truth.
My main force is a custom pirate force that uses Age of War era units that they hijacked from a lostech prostector.
The prospector found a long dead jumpship that was used for a covert deep cover infiltration of the Lyrian space to sew chaos in the age of war, that eventually was lost to a misjump. The prospector found the jumpship and realized hat he would need to make repairs quickly before anyone else could claim it. Unfortunately for him he didnt do proper background checks into the techs he brought in, and thus one of the greatest pirate scores in history rebirthed the Sunset Strikers (or the Sunsetters for short). Theres a lot more to their story both witj the modern incarnation and their ancient predecessors, but thems the basics.
The Age of War is my favorite period of play, but not a lot of folks are down for a game set in it, so its an excuse to bring my favorite mechs int later periods and devlop some lore with my wife. I also like painting garish colors andlike switching paint schemes up.
Sounds like a wild adventure.
Of all the things the Clans have done, perhaps one of the more incontestably beneficial things they've done for the Inner Sphere includes doing away with Redjack and his cronies. That being said, the fact that the Clans were now there meant that perhaps the situation at the time simply went from bad to worse for anyone living in the area.
Yeah hard to say...
Ryan was a brutal pain in the ass, but neither the Lyrans or the Dracs ever bothered to send a big enough force to end him for good. The Clans were free of distraction and had the will and the firepower (and the Elementals) to do a properly thorough job. If the Clans had been less arrogant and more willing to promote their interests, the suppression of pirate bands and Periphery warlords might have gotten them the submission and acceptance they craved.
Your welcome
Also, don't the Clans have their own pirates in the Dark Caste?
At one time Sarna had a page that was about how the Dark/Bandit Caste were taking over Pirate Kingdoms to form their own territory to make raids on Ghost Bears Dominion, Hell Horses and systems already in conflict (to steal jumpships mainly). That got RetConned. The only thing Ive seen other than the Burrocks Bandit Caste debacle is in Garmen Kerensky's page as a notable Elemental. The Dark Caste following The Winter Lady ended up with 3 jump ships and 40 drop ships. Now how does a group of people that are Outcasts survive for 300+ years? By being the Covert Operations Experts that the Rest of the Clans think The Watch is.
The plot thickens.... maybe.
@@MechanicalFrog
I'd love to see a Bandit Cast crew gave dealings with the New Explorer Corps. There's so much potential in what are essential anti-clanners. We get a fair amount of ex-Clan viewpoint in the BT narrative, and are used to seeing the Clans in a negative light from the outside, but a rogue culture descended from amd concealed among and around the Clans makes for a whole new sandbox of culture to play with. It's interesting to immagine what people who are unmistakenly of Clan culture in orogin but inherently in rejection of it. What sort of customs, manners, and perspectives might they have developed? What's their attitude towards conflict, leadership, coperation, romance, philosophy, art, personal goals and values?
Something to remember about the Clans is just how lacking in culture the Clans are. There is essentially no high culture, but likewise there is no low: The lowest of the low are still expected to use proper grammar and are provided with food and quarters, and not much time nor room to step out of line. Clan Culture is all about mutual behavior policing and advancement of individual ambition within a context of complete collectivity. It would be very interesting to see that script flipped.
Rejects and misfits in the IS either make legitimate names for themselves in their own right, or sink into the sort of underclass that is possible and inevitable in the raw mix of humanity you'll find there.
But I don't think we should expect the Bandit Cast to look much or even at all like other bandits from the Perifery.
I immagine being in the Dark Cast would be almost like a Gypsy culture of escapees from a cult of Futurist Amish Nazis and their descendants
Certain attitudes are likely to be baked in, like a reverence for the golden age of the Star League, but the sort of anti-family Maoist Statism that is core to the Clans would seem like something the Dark Vast would wish to be as unlike as they can manage.
It's really hard to be self expressive in a vacuum, and originality is hard(and is also usually the product of adapting something old and good anyway), and given the complete cultural isolation of the Clans, I'd expect the Dark Cast to be a strange mix of anachronisms mixed with bits and pieces of improvised and adapted culture.
I would expect to see great value placed in salvaged pieces of ancient Terran art and philosophy, particularly of the Western tradition in reaction to the Founders fetish for Oriental Despotism.
I can't help but immagine a sort of recovering-amish mixed with Sovieet defector vibe to their way of life and attitude: delighted and relieved by their ability to be something other than what their group of orogin dictates... and yet necessities is going to dictate that they develop some degree of working society themselves with some degree of conformity to something, at least. Some sort of Bandit Code of Basoc Conduct to set expectations for encounters and allow for collaboration, and an understood system of honor within their culture would make sense.
I would rather expect a sort of "theme" to go with each crew/family, because the crews are going to be families, because family and crew are likly to be almost synonymous, realistically speaking. People inevitably mimick thise they respect, so the Captains personal taste is probably going to be the single most significant factor in the specifics of how each crew dresses and behaves. There could be lots of room for fun there.
Some crews are surely in concert. Some are surely solo uno.
Disgruntled, disgraced, or otherwise disaffected Eatch members have the option to parlay their special knowledge and access into standing and acclaim at another table. The sort of devious and treacherous type who makes a good secret policeman is basically a turncoat by nature anyway.
Wouldn't it be interesting if the Dark Cast and the Watch are actually in cahoots at some mid-tier compartmentalized level??
I'm imagining a Council of Operations Officers who have an understanding amongst themselves, or some auch.
There's so much room for variance due to all the different isolated and semi-isolated different crews. I would expect some to be completely dark and unknown to any outside their own cells.
Now I want to read/write a Dark Cast Source Book presented as a report from a Watch Officer, amd another as a "here's how to not die and embarass yourself too much" briefing to a new Bandit recruit.
I'm a wee bit surprised nobody seems to have sized upon the obvious potential of the Bandit Cast for heist stories.
Ive always loved the pirates, and mercenaries of Battletech. I've always imagined my personal faction to be a sort of Privateer crime family. Formerly Dark Clan made up of those outcasts before migrating to where the looting was good. And now they basically act as the dark left hand of the clans, no one would EVER publicly support or even acknowledge our existence, but when the dirty, dishonorable work needs to get done, or some particular person get on the wrong side of a person in power. We are often the ones they call upon to deal with it, even if they hate our guts.
Though the fact that we were able to get our hands on some of the best and latest tech avalibe to our "unenlightened" Cousins will greatly atest to just how effective we have been, and what "gifts" our employers reward us with, when they are not looking
Sometimes it's fun to play a little bad.
A interesting mech I came across was the Brigand. A mech manifactured by Tortuga pirates. It's a light mech made for pirate raids. Lots of weapons and extremely low back armor to encourage the pirate raider not to flee from a fight.
Why add the armor if you don't need it? That's just practical... heh
It’s also great for being able to shoot a pilot in the back if the pirates start to doubt your loyalty or willingness to commit whatever atrocity they command you to. It does make me wonder how many of their kind become pirates because they wanted to or because their forced. And once they have committed one atrocity they know they can’t go back anymore.
LDT-5 variant also has amazing jumpjets, making him an enormously irritating for an opponent, for he pretty much always can find an unprotected back of an enemy mech.
I absolutely painted up a Pirate band I called The Free Radicals. Oddly, it's one of my best paint schemes, as a mix of browns, white, black and burnt orange makes for a great camo for desert worlds.
When first started playing BT in the 80s...back in the day of cardboard standies with ridiculously small plastic stands, I chose the red and black logo of Redjack Ryan as my signature logo.
Had I known them what I know now, I might have chosen differently.
Still, I'm proud that I began as a Periphery Rat.
Hello Frog.
I played a LOT of tabletop games over roughly 25 years, from 1984 onwards. Amongst those battles were many raids against pirates, defenses against pirate raids, as well as performing some 'piracy' itself against various House held worlds and units.
Although none of the known pirate bands (groups) were of especial interest to me, a band created by a fellow player was quite successful. It turned out that he was supplied and supported by House Liao in the end, and eventually his bases of operations were destroyed... Although, like a cerain pirate in the animated Star Wars series, Robert the Red had multiple bases of operations, and hidden caches of Mechs, vehicles, and even hidden bases filled with troops.
It turns out that he was funneling his earnings into several well populated periphery worlds, which he used to recruit man (and yes, woman) power to swell his forces. This led to some interesting events.
In one such event, fondly remembered by myself, my mixed company of Mechs and vehicles raided a pirate base, only to find it was totally 'manned' by female personnel. Who had not even seen a male in years!
Negotiations were fairly long and drawn out, with many of my Company lured into relations with the personnel of the base. Eventually, this led to the entire base joining my force, so long as they could keep their new boyfriends, and their equipment. This in turn led to my force being expanded in a relatively short period of time, and to the eventual formation of a 2nd company of mixed personnel. The 1st company, needing replacements after several more operations, took in members of the 'Valkyries', and the Valkyries were 'adopted' as full members of the Star Lions Corps.
A decade later, in game time, there remained no distinction between original Star Lions and the adopted forces. Which, included dozens and dozens of personnel 'saved' from various fates upon the planets raided, or where pitched battles occurred. In fact, it became my policy to 'hire on' anyone, from any planet, that could prove useful to the Star Lions Corps Mercenary 'Company' (actually more of a Battalion at that point). Even so-called Traitors, Insurgents, and outright pirates. So long as they obeyed the rules of war, the Company's strictures, and did not 'prey' upon our civilians, they were treated no less for having been 'adopted'.
All of this eventually led to the Regimental sized unit that was hired out to House Liao, that was betrayed, their Contract violated, by the Mandarin of Spica ordering the unit to 'stand and die', or the Corp's dependents upon St. Loris would be murdered. This led to the faking of the units' destruction at the hands of the invading Davion forces, and the total destruction of Liao forces upon the planet. The Davion commander was good as his word, and helped free the Corp's dependents on St. Loris, and granted primary shares of all captured materials to the Corps for their aid in the battles for both worlds.
This, in turn, led to the Corps taking most of its shares as Jump and Drop ships, fuel, equipment, and over 20,000 Liao citizens. Most of the captured Mechs and vehicles were 'sold' to the Davion force for more Jump Ships and Drop Ships, as well as huge stockpiles of food and the contents of three Light Mech Factories, which were razed to the ground and taken with the Corps as they fled the Inner Sphere to found their own colonies and find their own destiny in the Deep Periphery.
So, in a way, one could say that piracy led to my unit becoming 'pirates'... in a manner of speaking. What was founded as several colonies of the major moons of several gas giant planets in the Stygia system, became the Stygian Compact in the next 100 to 120 years. By the time of the IL Khan era, the Compact had grown to encompass over a dozen planets in and near the Persus - Cepherus Cloud Complex (nebula).
Quite the backstory.
@@MechanicalFrog : Indeed, my friend, and one that took place in tabletop battles over the course of many months of playing nearly every weekend. And, as you can surmise, also the projection of what would happen during the unit's 'hiatus' of roughly 100 years in the Periphery, before changing their unit name to the Ghost Lions Legions, and returning to the Inner Sphere as Mercenaries. Backed, this time, by a government I fondly refer to as a 'Constitutional Tyranny'. :) If you wish, I can forward to you a .txt file on the Constitutional Tyranny and how it came to evolve into the Stygian Compact.
@@franksmedley7372 Good times had by all.
@@MechanicalFrog : My original merc unit, the Star Lions Corps, was created within a month of buying the rules, back in 1984. I used that for everything, unless I was playing a sub-commander in someone else's unit. The 'betrayal' took place sometime around 2003 or so, and took months to game out on the tabletops. I even gamed out many battles as my unit zigzagged across the Periphery until they found a nice F type star system with several large gas giant planets, with many near-terra sized moons that I could plant colonies upon. From there, things were just projecting how the colony would grow into multiple colonies, what would be mined and collected on each, how these resources would be used, or shipped off and sold, what would be imported, etc... for roughly 120 years... until the new Mercenary 'Company', actually numbering into the hundreds of Mechs and vehicles of the various 'Legions', returned to Mercenary work in the Inner Sphere and near Periphery.
Major question time; what ever happened to the younger Ryan after he was made a Bondsman? There's like no mention of him again after that little incedent with Vlad and Phelan.
I didn't see any info on that in my research.
@@MechanicalFrog Thanks. Was just wondering if you had seen something, cause Sarna has nothing.
He probably came to a bad end, since there was no one to speak for him, unlike Phelan.
9:30 The Fuzz... I haven't heard that term in a long long time ❤.
Beat it, the fuzz is coming!
Need a pirate faction to go against my periphery mercs, always easy as a bad guy
(Yeap yeap! They are a favorite of mine.)
When I noticed that I, as a 3025 player, was too set on trying not to blow up stuff and rather preserving it for salvage, i had to laugh at myself a bit since I was playing a battle game. So, my GM at the time started using pirate OpFors. I started a new Unit, small but determined, called The Hangmen, who fanatically hunted down pirate groups. Thanks for the vid, lots of fun memories. Oh, and do remember folks, try not to let the space assets get away if you can help it... without them, pirate groups wither :) My .02 c-bills.
I'd love to see a video on the Green Ghosts. Not quite pirates in the strictest sense, as their motivations seem driven by something other than financial gain, but still a very mysterious periphery war band.
Will have to look into them.
Ooo, you've inspired me to make a new Merc company: Barrett's Privateers! (like the Stan Rogers song) The rimworlds even have a Halifax, if I'm not mistaken?
yarr...
One factor that I think influences the savagery of pirates in Battletech is just how harsh life in space is, even compared to life on the high seas during the Golden Age of Piracy. Resources are not only at a premium, but if you run out or something goes wrong, you can very, very easily find yourself facing either a quick or painfully slow death. Space Piracy is, by it's nature, incredibly high stakes. Ruthlessness under those circumstances could be argued to be a vital survival trait, and once a person or crew accepts that it's either the other guys die or they do, worse excesses become much more acceptable. If you don't view those outside your pirate band as human, slavery, slaughter and worse becomes easier to justify.
Yeah it might be difficult to sort out just how much of the violence is necessary just to survive and how much is just broken people taking advantage of that excuse.
@@MechanicalFrog And how much is people 'broken' by the harshness of the circumstances. Some of history's greatest evils were perpetrated by otherwise 'nice' people just going along with the flow after all.
The amount of pirate shenanigans that can be done is just insane. Pirate rocket boats might be the ultimate Ares-compliant alpha
Lots of Rockets... so many... all the rockets.
Lady Death pirates fascinate me. Well be a nice faction to do for tabletop.
Absolutely.
Been playing Battletech, and working with the Aurigan Pirates a lot. Primarily because their missions are a challenge, its an opportunity to gain good battlemechs (i got my first Griffin after fighting the government a lot, even my first Hunchback). In addition, i work with the pirates because they are the BEST (in my opinion) way to use the Black Market, due to getting discounts on it. If you are friendly with them when invited, you get the entry fee cut in half.
However like what you said in the beginning regarding “Robin Hood”, that’s essentially what I do. I work with the pirates and bully the local government, but i also *work* with the local government as well. I help the pirates and local government fight the other factions because i dislike the other factions a lot.
My merc company is full of smugglers, gang enforcers, pirate recruits, and pirate crew/criminals. We’re more akin to Privateers. *I saw a non-canon paint job called “Cameron’s Curse”, but instead of Olive Drab with White, i use Olive Drab with Teal.
That's awesome. I'm so glad to hear stories from people who are really enjoying the game in its various forms.
@@MechanicalFrog Thank you! It makes me happy to have mechwarrior games after so many years. Last time I played mechwarrior was Mech Warrior 4 Mercenaries, Vengeance and Black Knight. Tried MwO, but was somewhat disappointed.
Another Clan with dedicated anti-pirate (well dark-caste) forces is Star Adder. It's noted in their description (and in Wars of Reaving I think) that their Watch is surprisingly competent at hunting down pirates.
Ah pirates, I have a band of them that is the narrative rival to my tabletop merc group. The Frontier Wardrakes and the Broken Star pirates have a particular hate for each other though they share an origin in the fact both groups were founded by a SLDF unit that deserted during the Amaris Civil War due to being cut off too far in the periphery to get supplies or transport to the front. The unit split in two and one went to a developing periphery planet that was in the grey area between the periphery and deep periphery. Those became the Wardrakes (White dragon head on a green shield symbol),the others went to an abandoned colony and would raid to survive after the end of the war, founding the Broken Star (Symbol being a cracked Star League star on a skull). Both units were active up to the fourth succession war (Haven't written anything more about them yet after that point)
Any encounter between the two groups leads to a battle where no quarter is asked or given. The Broken Star tends to end up the worse off of the two but they are like roaches,you can't put them all down and a few slip away to rebuild. The Broken Star pirates like to raid the Frontier Wardrakes' homeworld every now and again to tick them off and pit most of their forces against a few Wardrakes and the planet's local government garrison.
Awsome iam just building a pirate lance The cat o nine tale gang.....
Sounds painful.
@@MechanicalFrog i wanted to give them a Name that fits for piraten mechs gonna be Black with Red blood Drops on the back side of the mech..... one drop for one killed mech
@@minimundus1712Appropriately menacing.
I’m planning a ilClan era Pirate group based on a planet with agricultural resources. They raid and also operate as a mercenary force under a different name. Somewhere near the Smoke Jaguar original corridor and Drac space. I’m hoping to build it into a campaign or open challenge at my local game store. Seems to be a lot of Drac players and I love playing “villains” as RP anyway.
Awesome! They'll probably be pretty rugged considering how brutal the Jaguars AND the Combine can be toward pirates.
It's always great to see these videos adding some detail to the universe, pirates especially are very interesting and it's a shame we don't see more of them!
ARRRRR ITS A PIRATES LIFE FOR ME!!!! ☠️ ☠️ 🏴☠️ 🦜
Maybe the real treasure was all the airlocked crewman we left in our wake along the way...
The first scheme I painted up was a Morrison’s Extractors unit. Love me some pirates.
Excellent!
leaving a comment to support this content creator, thanks for the work you put into the channel Mechanical Frog, looking forward to seeing you hit 10k subscribers
Much appreciated! We're on track to get there by the end of the year so long as the nonsense keeps flowing.
Can’t wait to start working on my Abominari Mechs!
Get it done!
I'm working on a force of the Shen Se Tian pirates and another loosely based off of Charon's Children. Loved the video!
That is awesome! Thanks for giving the video a go.
Wonderful vid. It's a bit shame Periphery and (mainly) Pirates gain not that much of an arsenal, especially unique one. After Circinus Federation end, pirate players have been left without lots of IS General mechs and gained barely something to compensate. Crosscut IIC Solahma Mech is totally nuts (which is wonderful), but it's just one industrial.
P.S. Ofc, you can always play with "salvaged clantech" if your opponents agree, but that's not like gaining a fully-pirate-made-mech. Like, wouldn't it be wonderful to have something specialized for boarding actions?
I think it fits with the desire to make sure that mechs still feel special. If everyone can design and field their own unique mechs, meh.
@@MechanicalFrog, well Houses have dozens o 'em, and Periphery (which should be much more interested in adapting and recreating mechs with variants that suite their poor / specific situation) have barely a couple. And even those are slowly disappearing with ongoing Clan-assimilation.
This often makes Periphery MUL-lists feel much more like a cut House one, than a force that adapts to survive.
Perhaps it truly would be too much if everyone would have tons of their own mech designs in stock, I agree.
But at least a couple of interesting common_Mechs_variants would be nice. Like, Pirates have 235 variants for ilClan (with only 66 of 'em being not Periphery General), but only 100 designs. That's cause 25% of 'em being available in 1 var only, and 50% more in 2 vars.
To compare, Mercenaries have 1289 vars. And long-lived Taurians are holding 320 only, when newly established Vesper Marches -- 390. Which means, if you want some variability on your next MUL-only-tournament -- you are creating periphery-themed Mercs and not just a Periphery force.
There are some rare exclusions, like industrial Centurions packed with rocket launchers, but most of 'em are Marian mad genius in action, lol.
The thing though is that pirates are pirates precisely because they can't manufacture mechs and mech parts. Even after the tech Renaissance of the Helm archive, few Periphery worlds could have the resources to bootstrap their own mech force. The existing Periphery powers were the ones who benefited, and everyone else was left with what could be salvaged, stolen, or hired. Living a hand to mouth existence with pieced together gear is all part of the pirate experience!
@@observationsfromthebunker9639, yeah, and that is an opportunity for thousands if canonical frankenmechs and something like Cataphract. But all we have is a couple of industrial MODs.
@@oleksaderzybis9052 If there are no official mechs assigned, then the imagination is unfettered! Have some fun coming up with ways for pirates and backwater of backwater defense forces to keep their old beaters running. There is probably more than one co pony out there that repairs and refurbishes equipment, and provides upgrade and parts kits, similar to those available for American classic cars and classic firearms. And don't forget custom decorations, be a use even a pirate can ride in style!
I'm particularly curious about the Dark Caste. They are arguably the Clan's parallel to the Deep Periphery.
Yes it'd be fun to do a video on them. We may just dive right into Clan stuff since I'm one of the few YT content creators who actually likes the Clans.
@@MechanicalFrog They're misguided and their ancestors were shoved onto a bad foundation, but they can still be interesting, and seeing how they change when confronted with the wider setting and the realities beyond clan space can be quite intriguing.
God damn them all, I was told. We'd cruise the seas for the glittering gold. We'd fire no guns, shed no tears! Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier, the last of Barrett's Privateers!
Just throwing out a little love for Vance Rezak and his Band of the Damned
Another great example.
Back in '50 our lance had been hired by the governor of Romita, a shitty little backwater planet on the edge of Marik space that consisted of a large equatorial cypress swamp and subtropical jungle. FWLM troops had gone missing, and reports from a certain outpost deep in the swamp were proving to be wildly inconsistent with itself. After somr investigation it was discovered that a group bandit nationalists, calling themselves the Red Sticks, had launched a night raid on the outpost; massacring the garrison, but sparing thr comms officer so that he could fabricate outgoing reports and collect intelligence. They were dug in like ticks, using 1M _Locusts_ as mobile batteries and _Ravens_ to screen their movements. It took an aero barrage and concentrated long-range fire from our artie lance to wear them down enough that we could assault the base. By then their leader, someone the pirates called "Allaputtah," had fled, but he left behind a nice little CQC-refitted Thunderbolt for me to take a battlefield salvage.
Sounds like a lot of fun.
(Part of me is convinced there are references there I’m just not getting. But thank you for sharing.)
Sounds like a good and profitable hunt, if a bit annoying. Although why in the hells were those bandits stupid enough to stick around and trying to fight it out once real soldiers arrived to deal with them. Usually they have enough animal cunning to pull back against regular forces unless they have a advantage. But these were rebels as well as bandits so maybe they were motivated by more than just a desire for loot. Still I’m glad your lance did well and got some good salvage. One less group of bad guys that might drift out into the periphery.
@@Bluehairedgirl89
As it happens, our XO did a little digging on the HPG and discovered that a lot of Romita's original settlers were from ancient Terran native-american diaspora. A little more digging, and we found out that "Red Stick" was the name of a war band from some pre-FTL conflict about 1,100 years ago. None of us are scholars or historians, but it's reasonable to guess that Allaputtah and his pirates were engaging in some kind of independence-driven ghost dance; that was our assumption, anyway.
@@chesterstevens8870 Ah! Thank you very much for going into a bit deeper detail on that. It’s one of my flaws as a mercenary that I’m always rather curious and I love researching stuff, mama always said I should have been a scholar instead of a mech jock but I love piloting a mech to much to agree with her. You’ve definitely given me a fun little research hole to dive down once I get some time on a good datanet.
But that makes as much sense as anything else as to why they tried to dig in and fight it out despite the situation. It also proves they were more rebels than bandits, not that that makes much of a difference. I’ll have to remember what you did if I ever run into that situation myself, or the reverse.
Even the Great Inner sphere nations did the Pirate thing...!
Very much so.
just started two campaigns.
first story, 3022, mercenary units assigned to garrison a world that gets raided by the Oberon IV pirates.
second story, 3090, the mercenary force had a jumpship problem and ended up on a planet controlled by the grand children of Red Jack Ryan. they were told that they could earn a position with the pirates or be killed by the pirates.
from Solaris VII, to mercenary contracts, to pirates... it's an entertaining universe!
I always wished that Michael Stackpole had gotten to tell more tales of Katrina Steiner's time as The Crimson Corsair.
Yeah he should get on that.
@@MechanicalFrog I'm annoyed that his original draft of Natural Selection was just that, but the powers that be decided they didn't want a novel that goes backwards in the timeline and they gave us a Clanner fraud using the same name.
Pirates make great target practice.
Fact Check: True.
I'm Captain, Captain Jack Sparrow.
okay okay I just couldn't resist that one. Thank you very much I'm here all week, be sure to tip your waitress 🙂.
Remember the 7:30 show is completely different from the 9:30 show, goodnight!
Favorite pirate band is probably the one I'm inventing...work in progress😅
Yarr...
Your money or your life! Oh, I'm sorry, I'm always getting it wrong. I meant your money AND your life! -- Blackadder villain
Classic.
Why do we love the Periphery Pirates? Simple! Because only killing Kuritans all the time would make Battletech a little boring. You need someone else to shoot at once in a while to spice things up a little. Of course the fact that those pirates your fighting up on the fringes of Outworlds Alliance and Davion space all speak Japanese, have dragon tatoos, and cut their own stomachs out with a knife before you can capture them hints that maybe you're actually shooting at Kuritians anyways . . .
Tough but fair.
Slight correction with the intro, Robin Hood didn't "strike out on his own", he was made an outlaw by the establishment (which were corrupt) because he chose to do what was right, Robin Hood works to fix the corruption and right wrongs in the kingdom.
Everyone (especially Hollywood) likes to focus on the "steals from the rich to give to the poor" parts, but that is not the moral of his story, he reminds those in power of their responsibilities, such as when Robin and his men rob the Bishop in Sherwood and tie him to a tree, the Bishop is obviously afraid they're going to torture or kill him, but then Robin asks the Bishop for him to perform mass for them, to remind him what the Bishop's true purpose in life is, not to be focused on money and taxing the poor.
Sorry about the rant, but it always bothers me people get the wrong message about him, he is a big part of my counties' culture and history.
We love pirates because they get all the booty.
Arrr...
"Pirate on Pirate action"
bum chicka wow wow...
Nothing says love that a Bagger288 with AC/10s welded onto it
The math checks out.
9:40
*Gammut. It means range or spectrum.
A gambit is a ploy or preliminary maneuver.
I only make mistakes on days that end in Y.
@@MechanicalFrog
Sorry to be that guy. I'm an insufferable nitpicker of a word nerd and hope you take my occasional interjection with the constructive respect intended.
Now I remember an interesting little thing didn't comment on before. I hope you don't mid:
It may interest you to know that "dour" rymes with "lure," and not with "sour," it's a Scots word that few know the pronunciation of. It's such a lovely sounding word, and a pity so few know it's tonal joys.
@@horsemumbler1 No worries. After years of teaching, it takes a lot to hurt my feelings. I mess up. It happens.
Because there is something about stompy murder machines being used in glorified muggings that is hilarious!
Fact Check: True.
Kinda surprised about no mention of the red corsair (either of them). State funded piracy is still piracy.
So many good examples...
@@MechanicalFrog indeed.
Everyone is a monster to somebody 🏴☠️
Including Kermit the Frog?
I've always hated pirates.
Hanging them fom my Warhammer's PPCs and parading in front of a joyful population is standard practice.
I appreciate that you have a plan and carry it through to completion.
It's not the Marian's fault that they are pirates, the Canopians had it coming.
Oof... I know a few Canopians who might disagree.
The more mischief you gonna cause the further out ya gotta go. Just past how far Johnny laws goes will do for most.
Gotta stay ahead of the fuzz.
In addition to being a 34th century SnakeShip Salesman (long story & I hate to prattle on)...
... I'm also the Official Liaison for the:
🎶 Amazonian Space Pirates 🎶
I was compiling a dossier on The Girls activity in this particular iteration of the Galaxy (Spoiler Alert...parallel universes exsit) for their favorite Historian Prof: Mr. Tex. When complete I shall send you a copy. (Or I suppose CoN-Star will just intercept it eventually and send it to the Xplorers, as is Tradition).
Their operation tends to skirt the supposed norms and of piracy, not that you would know it by the (well manicured) PR & rumor campaign they have always had. The Rude Old Men (ROM) lose alot of their hair trying to figure The Girls out.
Have Fun&Fly Dangerous
'If you Kan't do it in a Keelback, you're just not that good'
(Thank you very much for all the work you put into this video, it’s great and a huge help learning more of the lore.)
Sorry, I’m starting to sound like a damn broken holorecording but I’ve gotta say it again. I dare anyone to think a kind thing about pirates after seeing the aftermath of a pirate raid on a world or seen some of their recovered captives. I’ll do my best to be fair and maybe their are some bands of gentlewoman thieve pirates out there but most of the ones I’ve fought fall firmly on the Red Jack Ryan end of the spectrum. They are fundamentally broken individuals who could make a honest living on just about any colony world but they choose to steal, kill, and rape rather than work for a living. What I’ve seen on the Periphery had rather ruined all those old romantic pirate holodramas for me.
My first real combat operation was against pirates, my families mercenary company had been hired by the Magistracy to put down a bandit kingdom that was starting to form a bit to close to their borders and was making a nuisance of themselves. Those pirates had started life as a mercenary company calling themselves the Volsung and had served the Lyran Alliance. They’d developed a nasty reputation serving Katrina Steiner during the FedCom Civil War. When it became clear the side they had backed was going to lose they turned on their Lyran employers, killed them, looted everything in sight, then jumped for the periphery and fell into piracy. Eventually their leader decided to conquer a cluster of barely scrapping by colonies in the deep periphery and declared himself Kaiser Albrecht the First intending to build a Empire for himself. We put a stop to that crazy bug fucks plans. All I’ll say about his ‘army’ was that one of the first places his pirates always raided was the local prisons or asylums for the criminally insane looking for new recruits. That says it all in my book.
I had to significantly abridge the account of RedJack Ryan's taking of that jumpship. It would have absolutely gotten the video in hot water.
@@MechanicalFrog (I can imagine, thank you for doing that both for the sake of the video and my own mental well being.)
@@MechanicalFrogDid you use the account from the original Periphery guide? (Available for free download at Catalyst!) That was gruesome enough to come out of some period chronicle of the old time pirates.
Chaos isn't a viable way of life. Anarchy doesn't preserve or gain anything. So of course the Pirates who don't immediately fall apart or buried by planetary defenders have organization and planning.
Quite true.
Gday Mechanical frog
loving your videos mate now im a now older battletech player im 42 i did most of my gaming in my teens and 20's i still have all my ral partha mechs
a full galxy of clan mechs and 2 line back up
ok my battletech history stops at 3067 what im looking for is a video to fill in the blank and explan WTF happened ive herd nukes stuff blowing up
ATT going down and the clans on earth WTF happened from 3067 to this new illclan erea if you have a video please point it out if you dont have one
please please please make one its not often this aussie will get down on his kness but i will mate
i hope you see this
and thank you for your videos mate
I've been pondering doing a key-events video to get people up to speed. The trouble is that there is A LOT in roughly 5-6 sourcebooks between 3067 and the Dark Age. The Word of Blake Kerfuffle was... insane.
@@MechanicalFrog mabby spilting it up in to nice chuncks 3067 to 3150 and so on but yes there is so much stuff and i olny read one darkage novel and it did not get me the olny good thing is at over 100yr prince victor stiner was still kicking and he still had his clan mech prometheus
i get a clue here and there in what has happened with your explorer corps videos but this mech warrior need a meal not a snack lol
i hope you can work out a good format for when you do make the video and i will watch it and watch it and watch it
thanks mate
@@nukenuked5749 It's tough for a variety of reasons including UA-cam content issues. Certain words trigger the UA-cam censors.
@@MechanicalFrog i know all about that you know us aussies and the use of the F bomb and C bomb well i really hope you can make it mate and ill watch it and waiting for new corps to
and thank you for taking the time to reply to me mate
We here in clan jade falcon do not actually like pirates
Freebirth
I'll see you in the circle of equals for that.
Oberon Confederation.
Praise be to Oberon... for they are the light...
So if Frog were a buccaneer, which pirate group would he be with in the BT universe 🙂?
Dark Caste, of course.
Arr...
Test comment please ignore.
Meh...if I'm not going to play Falcons, Liao, or Kurita, I would play mercs, but to each his own. Even thought my other three choices are hated antagonists. Go figure. :P I just like the Asian aesthetic. So sue me.
You're just lucky my lawyers don't answer my phone calls.
@@MechanicalFrog Ha ha...you are just full of jokes today, are you not?
@@NodDisciple1 Usually.
"Taking what you want from others, without any empathy."
...i.e., taxation.
:O
@@MechanicalFrog Ten soldiers and you're a pirate, a hundred and you're a mercenary, a thousand and you're a Periphery state, a hundred thousand and you're a Great House, a million and you're the Star League. 😉
Fake pirate voice? Good sir have you ever heard a Cornish accent?
Life is full of little challenges.
"We" dont. I dont even like Battletech.
ok, then.
Thanks for commenting!