How Rare is a Fortress Class Dropship?

[s u p e r g r a m p s]

Something just occurred to me when I was reading about dropships on Sarna the other day: Fortress class Dropships are pretty rare, right? I mean it says less than half a dozen were produced before the 4th Succession war, in which the Federated Commonwealth started to make more, 20 built in 6 years to be exact.

...Sooo would it make sense for a Periphery state like the Taurian Concordat to have one in there arsenal like in the campaign story? Wouldn't the neighboring House Davion and Liao be all over trying to grab or destroy something as rare as a Fortress from the Taurians?

[MortVent]

Some rare ships will appear in the periphery or merc units.

But a fortress class dropship while powerful is not necessarily a tactical target, as other dropships carry more units/firepower and are more common.

It's more a flagship style unit for the Taurians and could easily be something they traded for or captured

[Petrothian]

Keep in mind, This is set in 3025, during a time when House Davion just got out of the 3rd succession war (that last over 180 years) and is still brewing conflict with Lao and Kurita.

they really don't want to start something in the periphery only to have one of the others join in on their inner sphere holdings while occupied in the periphery (and not to mention before recovering their spent forces from the 3rd succession war).


And, as per the 180 years long 3rd succession war, the inner sphere tends to be more devastated (even with the desire/understanding for the need to preserve technology, things still get bombed from orbit sometimes, after all, said rules that try to avoid the destruction the 2nd succession war wrought was never formalized by all parties involved) than the periphery. So Davion wouldn't want to pick a fight with the Taurians who have less territory to defend and whose infrastructure/production capacity were more relatively intact while Lao and Kurita is just waiting for an opening.


The time period before the 4th succession war is really a Mexican stand off until the Lyrans and Federated Suns allied and flipped the tables of power balance in the inner sphere.

[Lack of Stuff]

Well... they don't have it in their arsenal anymore thanks to Adam Jensen.

[The Wolf Steel]

Stories always get to produce a novel claim on rarity. It's more or less a story's narrative imperative to utilize such elements in the lore for a pushing force. If it wasn't for that ship, they would have had to utilize another measure to force us into the direction the story took. Massing 'Mechs enough to combat the force and morale we were pushing with would've escalated the war to new levels.

Instead they use a powerful naval vessel that dwarfs anything we can put into the equation, mitigating our military weight and force we were exerting on the Directorate. That equaled the field, and tipped it far out of balance with the additional support they provided in means of a traditional military.

Remove the equalizer in that equation, it becomes a large bog-down with back-and-forths until one side takes a heavy enough defeat, or series of defeats. Given that the Player will have to more or less -WIN- in every mission in some manner to keep the story going, this would end up as us overcoming impossible odds just because "we're that good".

Instead, they went with the current story. It reads off better, and tells a better story.

[MortVent]

Of course they could have used an overlord class.. which actually carries a battalion of mechs.

Though from the in game talk I'd say it was salvaged and rebuilt as a dedicated mech carrier removing the heavy vehilces and infantry for more mech bays (though core stats would be altered too due to cargo weight..)

So likely not a true fortress class but still built on a salvaged hull which would make sense if it was a battle prize

[:WTF: Grendel]

Originally posted by s u p e r g r a m p s:

Something just occurred to me when I was reading about dropships on Sarna the other day: Fortress class Dropships are pretty rare, right? I mean it says less than half a dozen were produced before the 4th Succession war, in which the Federated Commonwealth started to make more, 20 built in 6 years to be exact.

...Sooo would it make sense for a Periphery state like the Taurian Concordat to have one in there arsenal like in the campaign story? Wouldn't the neighboring House Davion and Liao be all over trying to grab or destroy something as rare as a Fortress from the Taurians?

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Fortress

You could easily believe what information on Sarna states about the Fortress Class DropShip in terms of information to the Inner Sphere. Given the Taurian Concordat has possession of one would mean it is likely a holdover relic that managed to survive since the days of the Star League and the Periphery nations being occupied territories and members of the League without the voting and rights privileges of the Inner Sphere member states.

You might want to read this to gain info on why this type of ship was introduced into the BT PC Game story. https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Iberia

Given most of the information on factions/units owning a Fortress Class is mostly mercenary (mostly Wolf's Dragoons go figure lol), you can assume most of these are salvaged or captured DropShips obtained by various units, or maintained through the centuries since the fall of the Star League and managed to survive four Succession Wars and declining technological advancement.

If you like the BattleTech wiki at sarna.net I suggest you read everything you can on the Reunification Wars, Star League Civil War (aka Amaris Coup), and the following Succession Wars. It really does create a very large backdrop of lore to make one wonder how accurate any information is in the Inner Sphere given the decline of technology and information available from those lost ages and the lostech so sought after.

[Wantoomany]

The only thing that makes the Fortress special is the Long Tom artillery. Without that, there is nothing about the hull or drive that makes the ship stand out, or anymore difficult to produce.

Long Tom's, on the other hand, are rare as heck. It's a shame they had the Iberia use its artillery in game. It would of been much easier to believe it was missing, damaged, or simply just out of ammo.

[MortVent]

Originally posted by Wantoomany:

The only thing that makes the Fortress special is the Long Tom artillery. Without that, there is nothing about the hull or drive that makes the ship stand out, or anymore difficult to produce.

Long Tom's, on the other hand, are rare as heck. It's a shame they had the Iberia use its artillery in game. It would of been much easier to believe it was missing, damaged, or simply just out of ammo.

Well to be honest, artillery wasn't unknown during the time. It just wasn't used much during the skirmish style battles that were common. The long tom is actually 3025 tech.

Mostly they saved it for big battles where it could be used effectively