EvilP 2011/11/03(Thu)13:37 No. 45335 ID: 5004a5
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While the intriguing world of Steel Wars is indeed inspired by the BattleTech setting it is most definitely not identical in any way. Prior knowledge is not required in any way to participate in the quest and may eventually lead to making false assumptions. Keep an open mind and enjoy the proceedings.

Mechs are awesome and so are you!

The Big Four:

*Henriette Lagrave Foundation - Ruthless aristocratic merchants of off-world origin. Deeply involved in many key sectors, including media broadcasting and communications.
*Verdia Union - A powerful political group opposing off-planet exploitation. They are constantly striving to achieve greater independence for the people of Verdia. Has significant and diverse support for an arguably good cause.
*Quincy & Horsch (Q&H) - Large interplanetary corporation that specializes in mining, production and heavy industry, including the manufacture of military hardware. Has potentially vast resources, but has so far made very few overt moves in the ongoing hostilities.
*Aptus Teneo - A selective fellowship of companies and noble houses with footholds on several planets. Involved in most economical sectors, but is most known for their research and focus on progress. However there has been a large number of scandals regarding illegal experiments done on human subjects...
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Other powers:

*Human Federation - Verdia is part of the intergalactic federation that manages human expansion within the galaxy. Its major purpose is to regulate interplanetary trade and peace. Has a policy of not interfering with 'local' planetary disputes unless there are large scale genocides or violations of federation conventions such as the bans on nuclear and biological weaponry. Only has a regulation standard presence on Verdia, but can potentially draw on the combined might of hundreds of planets.
*Aegis Defense Pact - A number of land-owning small companies and noble families that have signed a mutual defense agreement. In theory they have a lot of combined military and economical might, but in practice it’s a very fragile alliance.
*The Eden Brotherhood – A cult-like movement with very military leanings led by a charismatic man known only as ‘Adam’. Promises to deliver an utopian world for its followers. Suspected to be behind a number of terrorist acts and several cases of industrial espionage and sabotage.
*House Rosenvinge - A noble house that has had a strong presence on Verdia since the initial colonisation. Has suffered badly during the recent conflicts however and their future seems uncertain. Has a very good reputation for being honorable and reliable.
*The Thousand Petal Lotus - A religious sect known for eagerly deploying their zealot mech platoons in the name of their god and prophet.
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Mercenary groups:

*Metal Militia - An old school mech mercenary group that has been around for hundreds of years. Said to accept anyone with a mech that's willing to fight. Very flexible and said to be a decent and honorable group that tries to take care of their employees, although their win/loss record isn't the best and there have been times where casualties have racked up.
*Raptor Security – Describe themselves as a corporate company, but are essentially opportunistic and shrewd mercenaries that carefully negotiate their contracts and 'conflict solution packages'. Famed for sometimes having offered "no win, no fee" deals. Are very good at picking their fights and fighting intelligently.
*Spectre Elite - Like the name implies they are one of the top mercenary units out there. Not very much is known about their command structure or their practices, but they allegedly field a lot of specialist mechs and incredibly well trained operatives. Said to take on regular mercenary work as well as underground and black ops missions.

Can we get a list of what Marius's convoy consists of? The types of vehicle and their capabilities and armaments, if any?

>>355175
This was intentionally left vague, but since you're asking the support convoy consists of the following:
- A multipurpose command/crew vehicle that has decent communications equipment and provides reasonable living conditions for a number of people.
- A powerful salvage truck with a flexible roller mat. Generally considered the best way to haul around damaged mechs and mech parts. The mat folds out and forms an adaptable rolling platform for dragging around heavy goods at slow, steady speeds.
- A field maintenance crane with mounted tools. Good for lifting wrecked mech hulls so that a roller mat can be rolled in under them. Also allows one to perform simple repairs, reload weapons or in some cases even attach equipment in the field.
- 3 large ammunition and supply trucks.

All the vehicles are quite rugged and durable with large wheels suitable for nearly any terrain. On flat roads they can push themselves to exceed speeds of 120 km/h. They're powered by strong combustion engines driven by a synthetic fuel mix. The command vehicle has a remote controlled machine gun turret on the roof to deter small numbers of infantry.

Replying to a few reasonable battle strategy suggestions with "draw the battle plan" after several days isn't really that great. A requirement like that should really be presented up front, because now the sense is that all the effort put into the original suggestions as to what to do was completely wasted.

Besides, with precious little information on that map- elevation's kind of important, as is weapons range, mech speed, and a half-dozen other things- the map is hardly useful for anything other than reducing what seemed a fairly detailed combat situation into a bunch of boxes and lines.

The late map inclusion was a bit of a fuckup on our side. It was originally intended to be submitted with the update before, but got put on the backlog due to various reasons *coughskyrimcough*

Mister Brush 2012/02/08(Wed)07:25 No. 49096 ID: c3ec0a
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Do you guys want to stick with Marius or play as another faction?

>>358896
I was cool with Marius. Jumping around between factions when we've hardly gotten to know him that well seems like it would only truncate the tentative bits of characterization that this quest has already managed and abort the opportunity to develop them into something compelling.

>>358906
Same here. I think switching factions is generally not that good an idea narratively.