Why the Capellan Confederation is the Best Successor State!

From Sword to State

Whether its units on the battlefield, or what happens in the universe, most people have a favorite House.  Mine has always been the Capellan Confederation, led by House Liao.  Let me tell you why, and then you can share your stories about your favorite House.

Ah yes, the Confederation.  Typically seen as the weakest of the Successor States, the Confederation is often the junior partner of the Inner Sphere.  So why is it my favorite?

I have always found the 3025 era to be a bit poorly constructed, and uncomfortable.  Here we have a universe where the two states based on Europe are the good guys while the two Asian ones the bad guys.  It’s an obvious bit of yellow peril and missed opportunities abound.  That’s why I enjoyed the changes to these various states, from Katrina Steiner’s Face-Turn-Heel spin and the Combine moving very much into a strongly heroic role in the Clan War and subsequently.

From Capella With Love

And in the Confederation, we have Sun-Tzu Liao, the best and brightest leader of his era.  Taking the rump-sized state that he inherited, after ten years had passed, he had reincorporated St. Ives and its recalcitrant Compact and many worlds lost in the 4th Succession War.  Sun-Tzu is the most capable leader of his era, and he brings the Confederation a great deal of prestige.  Sure, he might be manipulative and willing to use many tools to regain territory, but he does so magnificently, and always with an eye for the long game.

So why the Confederation?  First of all, they genuinely care about their people. For example, only the Confederation gives every citizen health care, and they fully pay for their education as well. Sure, citizenship has to be earned, but that makes it special.  In the Confederation, there is a stronger sense of community and responsibility.

I have to admit that part of my Liao love is the natural admiration we all face when rooting for the underdog. When the Confederation wins, it’s a nice thing to root for. House Liao regularly punches above their weight.

One of the Most Rugged Medium ‘Mechs I’ve Found

Since this is a wargame after all, part of my affinity for the Confederation comes from battle.  I have found a lot of Capellan Designs to be really sturdy and strong.  I enjoy Vindicators because they are durable, tough, and can push folks around.  Because of its use of jump jets, I tend to prefer the Catapult to other missile boats like the Archer.  I like the ability to jump to the perfect perch to blast away from (as well as the ability to jump away from units that are trying to flank you).  The Raven is great ‘Mech and I adore the 3039 RVN-4X variant.  I also love to dominate with the Cataphract.  And that’s not all.  The prolific use of stealth armor is a great way to add some pop to a BattleMech.

Anyways, that’s why, in short, the Confederation is my favorite Successor State.  From playing it online on MekWars clients like MegaMekNet to rocking games at home, I’m all about giving House Liao some more victories, and leveling that playing field!

So what’s your favorite Successor State and why?

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About Abe Sargent

When his first attack roll with an LRM15 from that Crusader destroyed a Ryoken deep in the jungle, Abe grew hooked on the game that brought heavy metal to a smart sci-fi universe that realistically portrays humanity in the future with all of the foibles of today.

17 thoughts on “Why the Capellan Confederation is the Best Successor State!

  1. Aemielius

    Federated Suns.
    Bold and honorable.
    Sure, they use spies and a bit of disinformation but it always against their known or a stated enemy, never against their own people.
    They may start a war, but they always make an open declaration of it, never a sneak, terrorist type attack.

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  2. JPArbiter

    When I first came into the game the Federated Commonwealth was a thing already, so I favored them due to size, as I matured I prefered the Lyran Commonwealth portion of the Fedcom. they may be crooks, but they will look you in the eye and smile while they rob you blind.

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  3. James

    With the Confederation, I always felt it was dependent on the groups. While some did all they could to conduct themselves honorably both on and off the field, such as the Warrior Houses, there were those zealots who would endanger innocent civilians all in the name of the Confederation.
    My favorite state is the Free Worlds League. Yeah I know they had a lot of bad things with the false Thomas and such, but in general they do their best to protect all their worlds, not just those with value to the people higher up. I also appreciate their individuality both on and off the field, though that has been known to cause rifts in the past. Also, unlike the Combine, they treat the members of the Clan Protectorate (made up of the Nova Cat survivors and members of Clan Sea Fox) as equals and not tools for their own protection.

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  4. Alex Ward

    I always liked the Federated Commonwealth simply because Hanse and later Victor are straight shooter warriors who disdain politics. Victor tried to do the best he could for the most people he could and usually got it right even if it took a few tries. He had no desire to rule and thats why I think he was good at it. Also the people of the FC tend to have more opportunities open to them and more freedoms than in many of the other realms.
    That being said, I can see becoming a fan of the CapCon. Sun Tzu had to act like a moron through most of his life to avoid appearing as a threat to the insane Romano. There’s where the differences really began though. With the Trinity Alliance, he reconquered St Ives and tried to integrate the compact back into the Confederation peacefully. He didn’t kill Kai or his family, just kept them close to keep an eye on them. He treated his citizens far better than his insane mother, making real efforts to restore their pride and raise their standard of living through Xin Sheng. Though some of his methods weren’t the most admirable, Sun Tzu did rebuild his nation and their pride. He might have become a truly wise yet dangerous leader and led the CapCon to a size and properity they’d never had, if the Jihad had not undone so much.

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    1. Abe Sargent Post author

      I hear ya.

      While it’s true of his son, I’m not sure I’d ever characterize Hanse Davion a “strait shooter who disdains politics”. In fact, I’d say he was his generation’s Sun-Tzu. His political machinations are convoluted and extremely effective. But maybe that’s just me.

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      1. Flashfreeze

        Just as a fun note, the TV Tropes web site lists Hanse Davion as both a “Magnificent Bastard” and “Cunning Like A Fox,” mentioning that he’s a brilliant schemer and insightful planner (yet making no mention of his respectable ability in a BattleMaster). We only need to look at the 4th Succession War and his responses to Operation Scorpion or during the early years of Inner Sphere cooperation against the Clans to see the kind of savvy yet incredibly manipulative ruler he could be.

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      2. Alex Ward

        I really meant that he just disliked politics even though he’d learned to be a master of them. Compared to Melissa and Katherine who were both enjoyed the political arena.

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  5. CF

    Outworlds Alliance.

    “We beat the Star League. We beat the Clans. We beat the Jihad. Who’s Next?” >:)

    Reply
  6. Ruebezahl54

    Clan Fire Mandrill, Kindraa Kline! We are the Successor of the Terran Hegemony!
    Yes, we exciled ourselves from the Inner Sphere coming chaos, then had our own harder-than-your-succession-war-Level Exodus Civil War. We turned from the SLDF into a warrior-dominated Society, but we are glorious!

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  7. CoKien

    Abe, why do you think, the FedSuns are based on Europe? If you read the publications, which have been neither randallized nor beased, it’s pretty obvious, that especially the FedSuns represent more or less todays North America. Thus, the FedSuns also have some strong European influences in general, particularly British and French, but so does North America. There are plenty of examples, the SB: House Davion – The Federated Suns for instance even mentions an officer who styles himself like a cowboy.

    In fact, the LyrCom also has some very strong similarities to the US during the US Civil War. The Union is quite similar to the German, Italian and Irish dominated Lyran Commonwealth with its powerful industrial base, well equipped, but poorly led military, and people which are considered ‘mere’ merchants. That’s pretty much why William H. Keith put the Gray Death Legion into the Lyran’s camp ;)

    Btw, during the post-3050-era, the ConCap is probably the Successor State, which profits most from ongoing FIAT (remember that WoB is not a Successor State^^). It is virtually impossible for them to build up their entire nation (and military) on such short notice, even with the fragile help of the FWL and WoB, considering, that they lack a substancial industrial base, knowledge (the state sponsored education you mentioned above is nothing but the barest essentials), since the ConCap is the least developed Successor State, or a working infrastructure in general. But then, making the impossible happen (and thus, keeping logic aside) has been a trademarks (next to favouritism and narcissism) of Randall and Herbs development of the BT-storyline.

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    1. Bloodknight

      I’m pretty sure I read somewhere ages ago that BT intentionally doesn’t have an actual American equivalent because the creators wanted to give the players more viable choices (assuming that the game was planned for the American market only at first) instead of everyone going all USA USA, in the end leaving players without opponents that make sense instead of mirror matches all the time.

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    2. Nemo

      While this comment is very old, the lore states Sun-Tzu Liao and their sucessors did increase the Capellan industrial base for like 10% a year, unlike those other sucessor states that let it keep decaying. So even with a weaker base the industrial development of Capellans may be stronger in the Jihad era. Notice this was nmodelled on the industrial rise of China that happened in like 50-60 years, while from 3025 to Jihad there is basically that timeframe.

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  8. Ruebezahl54

    The winners write the history, if there is no clear winner, then there will be several different versions of history. It allways depends on the narrators viewpiont of the tale.
    The above comments all have good arguments.
    The others view them as evil suppressors with mad and unhuman measures against its own people. They regard themselves as the underdog missunderstood and bullied by the others, despite the Chancellor beeing the only and real successor to the First Lords Throne. Somewhen between the StarLeague era and the 1st succesion war did the Capellans had their largest expansion, with the gains of Terran Hegemony worlds and before the loss of Andurien. From then on they lost territory continously, with the obvious small gains, reconquests and further losses. Then Sun-Tzus “Xin Sheng” masterplan: Bammm! Back on playingboard in the big-guys league… Somehow it remembers me to Amaris the Usurper. He build up a very sized army concealed in the deep periphery at several secret RWR-Outposts. SuZu did similar but within his own Nation. The CCAF are as average as every other houses military. There are those dump looser units but also veteran fighters and elite supermen formations. One exception are political officers (as Amaris had…) within the troops [OK, the more than av. ratio] and the drilled fanaticism to the death. The human-wave tactics like Stalin [I have more infantry than the Wehrmacht has bullets! We will win!] work from time to time, but allways leave massgraves! The others do not so often produce so big and regular massgraves, when then mostly by accident, as collateral damage or yonder slaughtered Capellan infantry-waves. All of that is somehow against my feelings for freedom, equality, selfdetermination. But it also has its advantages in gameplay and roleplay, it gives the universe another touch and point of view. As the Capellan ruler you can do wat you want. Conduct every individual as you see fit, you master of everybodies lifes, with a snip of a finger someone gets killed, right here and now or somewhere else somewhen in the future. The Chancellor can send troops, civilians, material, Food, water, even air/oxigen how he likes. That is not good. It is even worse than the Draconian dictatorship, even worse than most of the life-neglecting Clans. Capellan servitor vs. Marian slave? The Marian slaves fate is slightly better, maybe? Have you played “Succession wars”?

    Reply
    1. Ruebezahl54

      Whenever I played “Succession Wars” the best solution for CC at the beginning of the game was to construct as much conventional forces (black quares #3) as possible and devide evenly. Retreat regular forces to main worlds and look at the storm of war around you. Try to pile-up money, later acquire mercenaries, build huge transports, increase techlevel. When the CC conquered the FWL, the became a very tough opponent, but whenever trying to test the Suns they lost. Even a freaky CC-FS co-assault on the Combine led to desaster as did a CC-FWL co-anti-Steiner attack. In BattleTech I only did once Capellan party: 600to for each, Davion 8Mechs, Liao=me 8Mechs. Result: 2Davion Mechs destroyed one by gyro-hit, one by over-heated AC-ammo explosion after 2 engine-hits. My last surviving Mech retreated downhill with its remaining leg. What do you think happened? Yapp, it fell on its face, tobbling down 2 levels into heavy woods. – Davion 8, Liao 2…
      Ever tried Capellan vehicles (before the Stealth era) and conv. Infantry against FWL tanks and BattleArmor?
      Hail to the victorious Eagle!
      So I am slightly fed up with the Capellans…Sorry for the rude words…

      Reply
      1. Ruebezahl54

        Oh, I forgot the evil Capellans´s responsibility in “the DeChavilier Massacre” [“http://www.sarna.net/wiki/DeChavilier_Massacre”]
        {=“The rebels, heeding neither strength nor sense,
        Cowardly ambushed noble DeChavilier.
        Although he fought like a lion, he died
        And with his death came the clouds, and reason fled
        Like a winter sun’s feeble evening light
        Above hopeless Eden and wicked Babylon.
        – The Remembrance, Passage 8, Verse 36, Lines 51-56 =},
        burning the great Aarons Atlas in a trap of oil after pulling rioting on Eden against their peacefull former comrades of a FedSuns-origin…
        This time, the Capellans did it WITHOUT the leading of an insane Liao-family overlord-ruler. The ordinary capellan folk and SLDF-soldier of CC-origin began the Troubles…
        And again, sorry for the rude words, but still “I am fed up with the Capellans”.
        Of course do I like to bethe Capellan all-mighty Chancellor. “It is allways good to be the king.” (Zitation: Mel Brooks: History of the world). —
        It is your turn now my comrades.

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        1. Alkaiser0013

          Started playing in mid 90’s by then the Federated Commonwealth was already in existence . I viewed it as the only bloodless attempt to unify the inner sphere (just the merger itself). I leaned toward the Steiner side by default due to my German heritage (although, I despise the French social general culture being attributed to Steiner…). I also enjoy making jokes about: My scout mech of choice is a Beserker (it moves 8 when it needs to…). Making room for a gauss rifle, against better judgement. (When I saw the Osprey art I remarked to my friend “My volk fixed the Raven” (art is similar to the Raven but with a gauss rifle on top). Rolling a Firestarter when starting a Mechwarrior campaign leads to me pregame bartering for 3 items to replace the whole mech. A shopping cart, a gauss rifle, and 1 ton of ammo. So many dumb out of character laughs spawned, that I wouldn’t need any other reason to be a part of the Lyran Kaiserreich…err Commonwealth. Jawohl!

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        2. Nemo

          You don’t have to use direct assault with the Capellans, you need to use sneaky tactics such as the Triple-Strenght myomers and Stealth armor. In fact many of the experimental stuff in Battletech was developed and/or is mostly used by the Capellan Confederation (it makes sense since they need it to compensate lower world base)

          And about the kiling of the oh-so-noble Dechivallier, that sounds like obvious propaganda (speaking in universe still), with the poem and all. Pretty sure a Capellan citizen wopuld tell otherwise.

          Reply

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