User:Frabby

Well, here's me

I started playing classic boardgame BT and reading the novels in 1992, back in a time when I had plentiful of spare time in the army (Luftwaffe actually). Not knowing anything about the game universe or the 'Mech designs, I randomly affiliated with House Liao because green is my favourite colour and chose the Archer as my 'Mech for the first training battles because I thought it had the most beautiful picture. I did not know how it was different from a Stinger... funny how I remember that after so many years.

Preferred time period: Third/Fourth succession war (pre-Clan)

I liked the early LosTech flair of the BT universe and started to lose interest in the storyline when the Clans arrived because I do not like their in-credible story and the associated tech and rules and general munchkinism. Accordingly, my BT interests primarily cover the time period between 3000 and 3050, and the inner workings of the BT universe at that time. Always enjoyed playing the Liao underdog.

The Clans broke it for me.

I have no experience with MW:DA yet nor expect to have any as I rarely play anymore. CBT is enough for me. However, I think bringing the story to a full circle, re-installing the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth, and bringing about a new era of Lostech was probably the smartest thing they could do to the franchise and now they should leave it alone. It can only get worse (see countless TV series that started out good and then ran until they were outright lousy - I won't even go into B5 or BSG). Trimming superpowers like GDL and WD appealed to me - better let them go down in flames and glory. I am not really up to date on the DA storyline, however.

Preferred Factions

The preferrence for House Liao stuck - I always liked to play the underdog, at least in games.

If I were to name a favourite Clan then it would be the Ghost Bears, or perhaps the Snow Ravens.

<rant>But the Clans themselves suck, as do their tech and rules. Where CBT was on the edge of dystopic futuristic space soap opera, the Clans pushed it way over the line to the silly side of things - Clan tech is pure munchkinism, quite the opposite from the original Lostech. Their invasion a Yuuzan Vong ripoff. Why did they not introduce technomages who can mutate into BattleMechs right away. Mumblegrumble...</rant>

Sources

I have read all BT novels up to Ideal War and some others after that, and between individual players our RPG group owned a plethora of sourcebooks and technical readouts. About half of this material is German. Much, but not all, of it is still at my place.

Recently I have been acquiring lots of stuff via ebay in an attempt to complete my collection, and the opportunity to purchase PDF files was one I could not resist especially considering how strong the Euro was vs. the USD at the time. My collection of out-of-print BattleTech products is fairly amazing now, missing only a few ultra-rare bits and pieces (especially the elusive Star League sourcebook and the Wolf and Spider comic).

What I am doing on the Wiki

Generally, being a general information spotter who has diligently collected and put together bits and pieces from various sources made me an obvious victim to wikipedianism. I started adding bits and pieces here and there and I really would not say there is any specific favourite area I am working on.

Canonicity

Delving into the CBT forums on classicbattletech.com (the Catalyst site) I found myself in debates about what is canon and what it not. Although I managed to squeeze a not entirely unclear answer out of Mr. Canon Herbert A. Beas II himself ([1]) his answer is somewhat unsatisfactory to me - not for its sub-par clarity (it is actually more than somewhat grey around the edges!) but for the verdict itself.

I am totally galled that the rights owners licensed away stuff and then refused to accept the licensed material as canon. Not only does this de-canonize lots of good and sensible information, it also requires me to go all over my information again and weed out the alledged non-canon. I fail to understand why they would not default to "canon unless countered", but it has been made abundantly clear that in fact, the policy is "non canon unless sanctified by core canon". Which causes no end of problems, to me at least. (As is evident on my attempts to bring a Canonicity debate forward at Template talk:NonCanon.)

Administrator

To my own lasting surprise I have been offered Adminship on BattleTechWiki. I normally seek to avoid any form of responsibility in my spare time activities but decided to give it a go nevertheless. I both hope and expect that being an Admin will change essentially nothing for me, and if the added rights and privileges are helpful to me in grooming the integrity of the BT universe then that can only be a good thing.

To-do list

(This is more for personal reference)

• Hammer out and finalize Canon, Policy:Canon, and some templates like "Non-Canon", "Canonicity uncertain" etc.
• Begin the monumental task of sorting out all planet/system articles and clean up the mess:
  • Check and correct co-ordinates, add missing worlds/systems (lots!!)
  • Create a category and a new InfoBox template for "Star Systems"
  • Work through the Planets category and rework all ~2000 articles into the Star System format, include individual planets in their respective Star Systems and improved ownership history; eventually totally replace Planets category with Star Systems.
  • Check with User:Nicjansma if we can re-do the maps to be based on correct, updated data and, failing that, if we should not abandon the starmaps and point users to the TeamSpam Inner Sphere Atlas?
• Add article on BattleTechnology, scan covers, provide overview for all issues (largely done save for some issues I could not yet get)
• Add article on Fallout comics, scan covers, provide overview for all issues (done)
• Add articles on other Blackthorne BattleTech (Comic series) I have acquired (done)
• Add apocryphical units from dubious sources with special attention to their canonicity status (muddy waters)
• Create articles for Houses and segregate them from the Successor States and Periphery states said Houses rule(d)
• Create category "Unique 'Mechs" for the odd prototypes and FrankenMechs out there and add appropriate articles
• Add all missing Small Craft from TRO3057

My roleplaying group

Besides boardgame 'Mech combat we did a lot of scifi roleplaying in the BT universe back in the time and eventually played our own merc unit (with periphery bandit background), where I was largely the GM and not a playing member. The storyline of our RPG campaign kicked in around the year 2995. Our freelance merc unit made first contact with the Oberon pirates and agreed to work for them in the countless feuds that plagued the pirate-infested periphery. Ultimately, they became so powerful within the Oberon faction that they became feared and mistrusted; they were soon sent on increasingly hazardous missions and received less and less support until they decided to break away, stealing a number of heavy 'Mechs and a Leopard class DropShip in the process. This earned them the wrath of the Oberon pirate king.

After falling out with their erstwhile pirate lords, the unit's combat record shows mercenary contracts with Houses Steiner, Kurita and Marik who usually sent the unit on diversionary raids and (rarely) on objective raids or pirate hunting missions. They performed adequately (for mercs, i.e. poorly) in the defense of Suk II against a Kurita raid, where their heavy but slow 'Mechs were outmaneuvered by lighter Kurita units and they lost the Stalker which had been their payment for the job.

Their rating in the Mercenary Review Board dropped considerably after the unit "accidentially" lost their House liaison officers on two occasions: In one case an error during combat drops from orbit (blamed on a computer malfunction) dropped their liaison officer in his Phoenix Hawk far behind enemy lines, never to be heard of again; in another case a liaison officer was KIA on the battlefield under highly dubious circumstances involving the mysterious disappearance of a vast amount of combat salvage. The unit was also accused of war crimes while operating as counter-insurgency forces in the Free Worlds League, but an inquiry failed to provide conclusive proof.

In summary, they were mercenaries of the worst sort: Effective in steamroller tactics but immune to finer details of planning, unable (or unwilling) to achieve any mission objective besides search & destroy and wickedly addicted to Inferno SRMs (which they cunningly used to great tactical effect). They always inflicted and often suffered tremendous material losses over the course of their adventures, including the capture and subsequent loss of several different DropShips. When on the loose and operating on their own, unchecked by laws or liaison officers, the dishonourable and quite ruthless unit showed remarkable combat prowess as well as tactical and strategical skill and achieved great feats. Their name alone may eventually have been a deterrent to would-be attackers, and their determination (or stubbornness) paid off more often than it cost them.

Last known status report

Their last status report showed the unit as a mixed troops bataillon, composed as follows:

• 1 modified Atlas with Gyro damage
• 2 Marauders, one of them the 3M variant
• 2 Warhammers, one of them a further modified 6K variant
• 2 Archers, one of them a 2S variant
• 2 Crusaders, one of them a 3L variant
• 2 Thunderbolts, both further modified 5SS variants
• 1 Catapult
• 2 Rifleman, one of them with a destroyed fusion engine
• 1 Shadow Hawk, heavily modified (Company commander's private 'Mech)
• 2 Scorpions
• 1 Wolverine that had its head/cockpit destroyed
• 1 Enforcer
• 2 Vindicators
• 1 Blackjack
• 2 Phoenix Hawks, one of them modified (replacing the MGs with Flamers)
• 1 Hermes II, without the usual advanced avionics suite
• 2 Centurions, both of the AL variant and both suffering from permanent damage
• 1 Wasp
• 1 Stinger
• 1 Locust
• 4 SRM Carrier tanks
• 4 LRM Carrier tanks
• 2 Tracked APC (25t)
• 2 Hover APC (15t)
• 2 Wheeled mobile repair platforms
• approximately 3 platoons of Infantry
• Aerospace wing: 1 Invader, 1 Union, 1 Leopard, 1 SL-15 Slayer, 1 TR-10 Transit
• One Phoenix Hawk and one Warhammer that were damaged beyond repair, to be broken down for spare parts

They were under contract to the Draconis Combine until the end of August 3000 as a mobile periphery defense reserve, stationed on Alleghe and tasked with the defense of St. John, The Edge and Lovinac against Lyran and periphery raiders. No further contracts are known; it is believed that the unit retreated to their secret home planet for good, and/or joined the Oberon Confederation after reconciliation.

In fact the campaign was suspended during this contract, and may yet be taken up.

They were fairly successful on the battlefield because I (playing the enemy forces as GM) apparently never excelled at tactics, but they made up for that with spectacular lousy dice rolls like crashlanding two Unions in a row in what should have been a cakewalk to collect battlefield salvage.

BattleTech MUSE

Around 1996 I played as Liao MechWarrior Frabartolo in a text-based online BT community (the BattleTech3056 MUSE as far as I remember). I eventually dropped out because my university uplink was too slow for the realtime combat simluator, leaving my 'Mech a sitting duck in the training exercises, and thus preventing me from ever partaking in any serious battles.

My notable exploits during the time on the MUSE included losing 3 Griffins in a row in ill-fated attempts to prove the design's superiority on the battlefield, later faring surprisingly well piloting a Crusader (a design I don't like) and eventually getting assigned a Cataphract, but never the Archer I always asked for. Despite merely mediocre combat performance (or perhaps because this was still better than than the average Liao MechWarrior) I was promoted to Subcommander, drafted into Warrior House Imarra against my wishes and given command of a Lance that had never seen combat action by the time I had to quit the game.