Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 12:11PM April podcast up in may, figure that one out... we plan on getting a second may episode out in June.
as usual fan mail can be sent through the widget on the right, or at arbitration.studios@gmail.com
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 04:26PM It started with a couple of pieces of fan fiction. Seriously that was all it took. High Test and myself, at the same time and independently of each other developed two mercenary units, roughly a battalion apiece. For my part it was a mech company, armor company, and personalized infantry company that was built for a hypothetical run through Battletech Chaos Campaign system from the Jihad series.
High Test took another route. He always liked the Blue Star Irregulars, and seeing their destruction at the end of the civil war resulted in him saying. “No, this will not do.” So he did what any fan would, and revived them in fan fiction. I do have to give my co host credit, in taking a narrative model for developing, he created deep and interesting characters. Eventually these two groups, the Lioness Combat Team (mine) and the Peacemakers (High-Test) would wind up on Elysium through a series of reality stretching coincidences. So that was how this one abandoned world ended up with two regiments, a couple of Warships, and a Cow.
It sounded trite for us to just “follow the old SLDF paradigm.” So High Test and I went hunting. There were next to no references for how, before the Reunification War, the old Rim Worlds Republic organized their military, even AFTER Historical Reunification War was released. It seems Battletech is so used to the 4-3-3 system that it is hard to picture anything else. We knew we did not like the Clan point-sttar system at all, and we briefly toyed with the Comstar/Word of Blake system. We were blessed with three things that made us think twice though.
The first thing we were blessed with was my own genius. As I mentioned before, the infantry paradigm I was using for the Lioness Combat Team was entirely my own creation. It involved 10 individual platoons (eventually cherry picking from TRO 3085s options) plus a full platoon of battle armor, supplemented by VTOL and Ground Transport assets. This worked so well that we adopted it as our standard “Infantry Company.” It gave us character, with companies being the main focus instead of regiments as is often the case. The Battalion level was skipped (save for administration) and we went from company directly to regiment, with 10 total companies being the constituent whole.
The Second thing that blessed us was Historical Reunification War, which gave us the most comprehensive level of organization for the SLDF. It also gave us one little nugget. The SLDF style Armored Divisions of the Outworlds Alliance, and more importantly the SLDF’s 31st Armored Division of the VII Corps. While no hard numbers were given on this, High Test and I assumed that an Armored Division was similar to a Battlemech Division, only made up of two tank brigades and one infantry brigade. We further spiced that up by having each tank brigade contain a single mech regiment and two armor regiments rather then three full tank Regiments. knowing how, at the turn of the 32nd Century, Elysium would be a 7 world coalition, we decided to start small with a single division of standing army, though events would later make that two divisions.
The final nugget or organizationa methology came from three sources. The Wars of Reaving introduced us to Treys and Septs, the old Handbook House Marik gave us the idea of 6 vehicle platoons, and finally the Davion Field Report gave us the Light Combat Team. What these allowed us were the flexibili8ty on the platoon level to allow vehicle Battalions with more then 36 individual tanks within them. In keeping with the “let the player chose” we merely mentioned two things in our organizational page: First that all vehicles are deployed in Combat Pairs, and that a platoon of armor consists of one to three combat pairs. This way some players who download the final product will end up with 54 vehicle battalions, others with 18 vehicle battalions. It all matters in how you as the end user want to flavor it.
And that takes care of the ground army. When we meet next we will talk about the one thing that almost destroyed the project for High Test and I. The Elysium Fleet.
Fanbook Saturday, March 24, 2012 at 11:17PM okay it is here finally, the opening of the podcast explains why.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at 10:50AM First a Programming note. Come Hell or high water an Episode will be up by March 15th.
Now, we had mentioned before that High Test and I have been working on our own little battletech faction for the past year and a half. things have largely congealed with that project, but some recent publications have caused us to go back to the drawing board here and there. we have not had to start from scratch thank goodness, but we have had to rethink a few things since the release of some historicals and XTROs
Creating a new world for the battletech universe, even a fan based one, is more difficult then it seems. When a player or group of players does this, they have to think about the personality of the culture and where they would/should fit in with the greater whole. This is where I think so many fan based alternate factions in battletech fail, and where High-Test and myself had to put a lot of effort.
It all started with a planets name, Elysium. Though started from the land of the virtuous dead in Greek mythology, Elysium has become an alternate word for sanctuary. Using that definition we had our start. The basic mission statement for the Elysium Republic became as such.
The Elysium is a Rim Worlds Factory/Depot planet, that through it’s own imprisonment prior to the Amaris Coup, became protected from the Succession Wars, Clan Invasion, and early Jihad. The planets discovery by a small band of mercenaries forced the world back into the public stage. While distraught at the loss of their beloved Rim Wolrds Republic, they as a people have vowed to become masters of their own destiny.
And that became that. We had a world with certain technological capabilities equating the Star League at the height of it’s power.
Culturally High-Test and I had issues. He had recently become a Jewish convert, and really REALLY wanted to create an Israel like state. If you have never dealt with a recent religious convert you know that they can sometimes be a little over the top. I personally had little to no problem with the idea of a predominantly Jewish state, but in a fictional setting where a Rabbi Shenequa Rodriguez from New Samarkand would not bat an eye, I also felt that a religious based state ANYWHERE would not be nearly as effective a means of cultural delivery.
Realizing how Stephan Amaris was fanatically Atheist though we had our fallback. A combination of religious dissidents who refused to bow to… whatever executive order he decreed and that Battletech tended to follow the general "Christians and Muslims are the primary faiths" that so many science fiction worlds have we went to work researching. Historical Reunifacation Wars taught us the Rim Worlds Republic would rather work people to death then shoot them through their history. we liked the idea of Teado Amaris saying "why imprision trouble makers when we can give them jobs instead? Jobs far away from political firestorms!" From that we suddenly had a planet and a means to populate it.
From their it went from being a Jewish Gulag to being a dumping ground for all sorts of religious minorities, making reference to Wiccans, Sikhs, Druze, Zoats and other “little faiths that could.” Sure Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists show up, but for the first feasable time, they had to take a back seat while we created a world with Belthane Festavils, and Yom Kippur.
And that was just a start. Next time we will talk about how we developed Elysium’s Ground military.
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 09:27AM So we planned on recording February 20th, cause for personal reasons we all would have been ready to go then. mother nature had other plans for our dumb asses and game Mrs Arbiter and I (and the Lil Arbiter, and a couple of our friends...) strep throat. I am just now on the 24th regaining the ability to speak without being in serious pain. we do hope to get the episode out there before the end of the month, or we will do it so early in march I can justify a double episode month then.
One other small rumor I do have to confirm, it is true that I have been Permabaned from the Battletech Forums. I will be leaving Forum advertising of the show to Mrs Arbiter and High-Test from here on in. I will also post advertisiments on the MechWarrior Online Forums and the new Mechwarrior Tactical Command Forums as well.
if there are any listeners interested in helping us out in figuring our RSS learning curve, and maybe help in designing the website to look a little more "Battletechy" the email the Arbiters gadget is to the left.