At least, the updated profile.
My main sources are House Liao Sourcebook (HLSB) and The Black Tigers Books (BTB).
So what do we know about her?
She became Chancellor in May 2760, 4 days before the Demeter incident, incident for which she denied any Liao implication and asked for the Council to adjudicate but the Federated Suns managed to target several worlds before any decision could be taken and to still occupy them when the war halted in early 2762 with the majority of Richard Cameron.
She was the daughter of Warex Liao, a military minded Chancellor.
She had a specific reason to hate Kenyon Marik following an event that happened in her late teens, “The thought brought a sudden frown to his face then as the memory of a slapped cheek and a teary eyed woman came to mind.
In a rare moment of self doubt Kenyon wondered; if I’d handled that differently…
The Captain-General of the Free Worlds League snorted then. It had been a different time, and after his dismissal from the Star League Defense Force Kenyon had been on thin ice with his father.
Old Ewan had in a moment of sobriety been in a towering rage at the embarrassment Kenyon had caused him.
Their argument had almost led to Kenyon being disowned.
Who the hell would have thought that Barbie doll would be in that club escaping from Warex Liao for a night.
Hell, I didn’t even know who she was or that she was seventeen.
Thank God Ewan went on another bender that night.
Barbara had hated him from the next morning on; Kenyon had returned the sentiment with interest over the years...†(BTB)
She has an affair with John Hamilton, the colonel of the 1st Kearny Highlanders.
She remained neutral during the Amaris' Coup, more because Houses Marik and Davion already helped General Kerensky and this in spite of her inner feelings “even though, in her heart, Barbara Liao admired Kerensky and supported his cause .†(HLSB)
She remained truly neutral in this conflict, sending troops against forces the from Rim Worlds Republic that “invaded†the Capellan Confederation.
She managed to negotiate the purchase of two former Star League units, increasing the efficiency of her army.
She agreed with the use of weapons of mass destruction but apparently only after the Ares Conventions had been tossed away, “Commanders! Henceforth you may consider the Ares Conventions suspended. I expect you all to act accordingly.†(HLSB) and allowed her commanders to use any tactic to deal with the Kurita problem during Liao occupation of former Hegemony worlds, “Unable to deal with the heavier Kurita Crusaders and Warhammers of the Dieron Regulars, Capellan field commanders adopted new and innovative tactics to even the odds whenever possible.†(HLSB)
She was no front leader as the only force she directly lead was sent into a trap and saw its freedom of movement decreased by her presence (as she didn't listen to her advisers trying to dissuade her).
“The Capellan command staff was hampered in the Calloway campaign by concern for the Chancellor’s safety. Unable to persuade her Ladyship to stay aboard ship, more than one Capellan
commander was forced to gnash his teeth while his critical reserves were tied up keeping Lady Barbara out of harm’s way .†(HLSB)
“Dozens of DropShips and JumpShips were sacrificed in the rear guard while the Chancellor beat a less-than-dignified retreat.†(HLSB)
She died three years later from a rare blood disorder, leaving only her grandchild Lisa (12) as heir.
Her stats in the Succession Wars boardgame are Combat 1, Military 1 and Administration 3, making her a good match for most House Leaders.
What can we learn from this?
As always, unlike what appears above, the lines below are merely my opinions and as such can be wrong, ignored and so on.
When was she born? This is a tricky question as we have no information apart that in 2760, she was 18 or more (to become Chancellor) and that at the time of her death, she must have been at least 50 (her majority, a 12 years granddaughter born from a son that was at least 18 at that time).
This is why I would think she was born at least in 2742.
Another strange thing is that “rare blood disorder†that killed her.
Why all of a sudden? And I don't remember reading anything about another Chancellor having the same problems.
She is definitively not a military leader, perhaps this has something to do with her father.
I think that like most leaders of her time, she fall prey to the complex of Frederik the Great, i.e. “why have a nice army if we don't use it?†“It is not that we love war so much... all of us simply got tired of peace. †(HLSB)
However, she did at least partly focused on one opponent, House Marik, as House Liao only fought House Kurita for the possession of some former Terran worlds. The Federated Suns front was rather idle but perhaps more because of the Kuritan invasion than the Capellan defences.
Is it because of her peculiar hatred for one member of House Marik? Or because she tried to focus her resources against one opponent? Or both?
She is lucid (if only afterwards) as she recognized that doing what they had done to General Kerensky was a mistake not because it meant the end of the Star League but because it was an attack on someone she had admired. “How stupid we all were to do that to such a hero. How insanely stupid we were.
Too late, we came to realize that what we did that day was worse than any crime - it was a mistake.†(HLSB)
Her suspension of the Ares Conventions is another proof of her lucidity as she knows that her army is not up to the task of defeating their main enemies and that as such, it needs every asset possible.
She is also patient enough to wait until the time is right to strike back at the Marik invaders “Instead of reacting immediately by moving reserves up to the beleaguered citadels, Lady Barbara measured her lime, collecting men and materiel from throughout the five commonalities before committing herself to a counterstrike .†(HLSB) and she is intelligent enough not to force her commanders to attack straight in the teeth of the Marik attack, making a strike at a target of opportunity and putting the entire Marik offensive in jeopardy.
However, she is perhaps too eager to repeat the same scheme once they have worked, even if the conditions were not the same “With no captured codebooks to guide them, and with Marik regional commanders ready for any sudden move across the border, the element of surprise House Liao had enjoyed the year before was gone. †(HLSB)
Her stats in the Succession Wars boadgame are right: she is no warrior or military leader but she is a good “manager†able to organise things.
Her secret weakness seems to have been art as proven by two quotes from House Liao Sourcebook “arriving on a newly conquered world with her shopping list of paintings and sculptures in hand is probably not far from the truth†(HLSB) and “her appetite for Terran delicacies†(HLSB)
However the latter could refer also to her willingness to occupy Terran worlds (8 in 5 years in Classical BattleTech).
Her affair just shows that deep inside her she is afraid of her power and is really insecure about why people love her and she finds security in someone loving her for her and not for her title.
This choice might also have something to do with her father as Colonel John Hamilton is described as “From his deeply tanned skin to his sun bleached hair the big man was Barbara’s polar opposite.†(BTB). She might be seeking someone like this to recreate the opposition she had with her father in their interests (she seems more interested in art and she is not a good military leader while her father was a military Chancellor).
However, since she is a Liao, her affair could also be partly (or have started as a plot) to bring the Northwind Highlanders under the orders of the Capellan Confederation.
All this makes a complex character that is definitively a schemer and a clever one but also one lead by her emotions/interests, which could be exploited by others to bring her and the Capellan Confederation into traps.
We could say that for her, her interests and those of her State are the same.
Although this is true for all the leaders of the Inner Sphere at that time, she is probably among the furthest on the road of the idea of “I am the Stateâ€.
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Topic: TA 2785 Character Profile: Barbara Liao (Read 14359 times)