Battletech - Blood of Kerensky

[Arkhandus]

Clanners drink. IIRC they just moderate their alcohol input, and their genetic engineering tends to make TrueBorns more resistant to alcoholism than FreeBorns. Training and hobbies are their general recreational activities......I do not remember anything more specific, at least for Clan Wolf. Some other Clans have more significant and notable pasttimes, but I cannot remember anything more specific right now for general activities.

Trials of Position pit some of the sibko trainers or other garrison Warriors against the trainees. Often old Warriors past their prime and with poorer reflexes than the younger trainees. It is not usually a fight to the death, just disabling the opposing 'Mechs until your own is disabled. Death still happens in the Trials, just not too often.

I do not think your 'Mech will be too weak, Dire Lemming.....the large lasers will certainly be useful at any range. The extra ECM Suite will only be useful if the other one gets destroyed, but it does not really hurt to have an extra.

 

[Dire Lemming]

Thanks, see I'm trying to figure out a personality for my pilot, and it's hard not knowing anything about the clans except what I've seen playing computer games where you're the Inner Sphere. I suppose that, since my 'mech is mainly a scout / skirmisher, so I guess my character would be rather cautious and observant.

So how does this genetic engineering work exactly? Is it the scifi tube grown kind?

What exactly is the common stance on sex among Clanners... and for that matter, gender?

It's good to know a bit more about the Trials. I'll know not to taunt my opponent, but instead say "Do not worry old timer. I promise not to take you lightly." Any more respectful term for "oldtimer" in the clanner lingo I could use?

Well, I just hope I can take at least one mech down.

 

[Arkhandus]

There is no respectful way to refer to a Clanner as old. Any reminder/inference that they are old is insulting because they hate getting old; their chances of finding an honorable death, personal glory, or any other chance to earn a Bloodname and pass on their genetic legacy diminish terribly when they get old.

Gender does not matter in Clan society, at least among the Warrior Caste. Sibkos typically have an equal number of women and men, or at least similar numbers of them.

Clan Warriors are mostly TrueBorns, genetically engineered from genetic samples kept by the Scientist Caste. TrueBorns are created and raised in vats they call iron wombs.

Once they have matured to a certain degree (something like 5 or 10 years of age in equivalence, I do not know or remember the exact amount), they are decanted, taken out of the iron wombs for training. The maturation process in the vats is accelerated, and the TrueBorns receive some kind of virtual training or knowledge-encoding I think before being decanted. I do not remember anything more specific about it.

Most cadets in the sibko die off in training or get transferred to lesser Castes, eliminated for sub-par performance or displaying emotions, attachments, or other behaviors, that are undesirable in Clan Warriors. They receive lots of general training beforehand, and are required to understand a little bit of material that would only be important to Technicians, Scientists, Merchants, or Laborers. This helps gauge what Caste they would be better suited to, according to their trainers, if the youths do not seem fit for completion of Warrior training.

So only a few cadets usually get to attempt the Trial of Position, around the time of their middle or late teenage years I think (apparent age; they are of course a few years younger due to the iron wombs' acceleration of growth). Warriors are considered old once they reach their thirties or fourties, and often forced to retire to a garrison unit, unless their performance is still great.

The sibko training basically teaches cadets only minimal trust and teamwork, and rewards personal ambition. They learn to treat relationships pretty casually; personal glory and ambition is generally more important. TrueBorns look down on FreeBorns (naturally-born humans) severely, and find the very ideas of parenthood, pregnancy, and birth as disgusting. B@st@rd is possibly the worst insult/epithet a Clansman can utter because of all its implications. FreeBirth is only mildly less insulting a phrase.

TrueBorn women receive some kind of anti-conception implants or injections every so often that render them sterile or somesuch for a while, so they cannot bear children (unless they fail in their Warrior training, or suffer a terrible dishonor later on, that gets them bumped down to a lower Caste, after which point they won't receive any further treatments from the Scientist Caste to remain infertile). 'Coupling' is the Clan term for mating, but without the connotations of 'mating', due to the infertility maintained among Warriors. Clanners have a far more casual view on coupling than Spheroids, and just consider it similar to recreational activities. As long as it does not actually produce offspring.



Only a few FreeBorns manage to get a chance at Warrior training and a Trial of Position (and they generally get really poor odds and treatment even then; they are more likely than a TrueBorn to die in their Trial). FreeBorns are usually limited to separate FreeBorn cadres and units, and tend to serve as garrisons or fodder, the same as old semi-retired TrueBorn Warriors who did not get a glorious death in battle (such Warriors are called Solahma).

 

[Dire Lemming]

They send retired Trueborn warriors to die as fodder? Sheeze, I'm liking clanners less and less. So Freeborn is not really an insult when directed at Freeborn, but Freebirth is?

Heh, I just love how games tend to ignore the differences between men and women except for making woman wear less or tighter clothing.

 

[Caros]

Hmm, to understand the idea behind old and aging warriors, you have to understand clan philosophy in one major point.

To the clans, its not age thats actually so much the problem. The reason age is a concern is the clan idea that each successive generation is better than the last. Every generation they take the best of the best warriors and use them to breed warriors. Next generation, the best of those warriors breed to create even better warriors and so forth.

By the time a bloodnamed clan warrior is in his thirties he could concievably be competeing with his own kids, who, by clan eugenics, should be superior to him in every way. By the time he's fifty, god forbid he's still in a cockpit, he's now fighting the equivilent of his grandkids.

Also, you seem to think that the clan warriors don't want to be used as fodder. They look forward to it. One of the greatest instances of a solahma unit ever had a troop of aging mechwarriors handed machine guns and knives and told to delay enemy mechs as long as possible.

The motto for solahma units is pretty much thus. "March forward and shoot. When you run out of ammo, use your knife. When your knife breaks, beat your enemy. If your arms are broken, kick him to death. If your legs are shot off, bite him. When you can no longer move, wait to die. If you can't die, there must be something wrong with your attitude."

 

[Arkhandus]

They do not wear different clothing..... But whatever.

Solahma can only hope for, at best, a death as fodder during a battle. Once they get so old and thrown into a backwater garrison unit, they have almost no chance of an honorable death, on top of having to deal with the pains of old age. If they ever get the chance to enter another serious battle, they will actively seek out a chance to fight a tough battle and die gloriously, though of course they would prefer to play a more important role in the fight. Still, fodder is sometimes the best they can get. They will only suffer more problems and insults as they get older.

FreeBorn is kind of a putdown itself, at least when a TrueBorn says it, because they usually say it with derision. FreeBorns have no problem with referring to each other as FreeBorns, and usually take less umbrage at it than a TrueBorn would when called FreeBirth.

 

[Dire Lemming]

So it's kind of like social Darwinism, but only directed at the old. Well at least I now know the IS are right in thinking the clans to be a bunch of crazy barbarians.

Odd how they all have totem animals, but they all have eliminated practically everything from their society that conects them with nature. :\

Arkhandus, what do they wear anyway?

You've got yourself a strange oponent Jemal. If I were in there I would've already asked them if there was something wrong with them, and tell them that if they were not willing to fight with everything they had then they should withdraw before their life and 'mech was wasted. Erg, I'm wishing I was in there.

 

[Arkhandus]

Combat fatigues. And maybe ordinary clothing sometimes. But pretty much just combat fatigues and occasionally formal uniforms, like for ceremonies. And MechWarrior togs of course, when heading to or from their 'Mechs (but at least they have more-or-less Star League era coolant suits, I forget the name for them).


BTW, Darimaus...... What would we use to open .rar files? I'm not sure what to use to open the map of the Trial grounds.... The map program only seems to work with .bme files.

 

[Dire Lemming]

The best program for that is WinRar. I don't have a link but it's easy to find with a search engine.

Hey, any of you vets got some tips or tactics you could give me?

 

[Jemal]

You've got yourself a strange oponent Jemal. If I were in there I would've already asked them if there was something wrong with them, and tell them that if they were not willing to fight with everything they had then they should withdraw before their life and 'mech was wasted. Erg, I'm wishing I was in there.

Aye, he's confusing me.. I keep expecting him to turn around and just blast me point blank, or try to get a back shot.
IIRC, though, Clanners generally keep a com silence during trials.

BTW, Dire Lemming, my advice would be: Energy weapons rock, and keep moving unless you out-tonne your mech by at least 30 and can get a clear shot.