OBT Forum

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My first impressions I have to say are favorable especially when compared to CCAF 2765. Sword of Light formation is explained as is the Dieron Regulars and both are believable. A lot of Terran Hegemony focus which gives this product more of a then feel as opposed to CCAF. One oversight I will say is the lack of mention of the Luthien and Benjamin Shipyards which are known to exist also Midway would have been another shipyard candidate. I don't mind the strategy behind the DCA, small fast ships built around carriers, but the poor shipbuilding industry? Not sure I buy that completely although the Combine was never an industrial powerhouse. I just think some other canon established yards exist and they are overlooked to sell this maintenance hardship agenda. That being said I'm finding this one more palatable than CCAF. More later!

Other shipyards may not have been available as of 2765, but available by 2780.

I like the whole feel of the Report thus far Dragon Cat. It really gives you the feel that the Draconis Combine is coming to eat your babies or at least that is what the SLDF thought at this time. Which they did. Beside the Periphery Rebellion everyone was expecting Kurita to attack the Hegemony not Amaris. So the whole mindset behind the book is pretty damn good. It gives you the 2765 feel that Liao missed.

Other shipyards may not have been available as of 2765, but available by 2780.

Granted. Much of the Dragon's planned economy I had originally envisioned had centralized its industry around capital worlds like Luthien and Benjamin. This seemed to be better reasoning to me rather than having their main shipyards at Schuyler and Chatham because they existed in 3025 and were already known. Its the one thing I see that gives the book a now not then feeling for the Combine. I would have inverted development with Chatham and Schuyler being created to grow the DCA fleet structure. And don't sleep on Midway - as it is the DCA HQ and home to the Aerospace Institute even though I haven't seen that yet.

I haven't put all the warship data together yet Irose but the lack of detail benefits the small fleet situation. It gives it a bigger feel than the CCAF report which lists every single ship. I do like what I see of the DCA so far but the fleets are still too damn small. While others may take solace in several hints that it may double or triple soon I do not. However it was done better than CCAF FR.

Mothballing of ships could be addressed by their breakdown prior to the Invincible and ComStar could have screwed with their long term maintenance cycles destroying or distressing key components effectively killing these relics and stopping them from ever terrorizing humanity again. It does take some of the luster off the Invincible I grant you but maybe people thought that the ship was still active somewhere and could still return better than these known wrecks.

My first impressions I have to say are favorable especially when compared to CCAF 2765. Sword of Light formation is explained

We might find the solution to our dilemma regarding these units.

I'm just going off of the preview up on DriveThruRPG (Forgive me, I just bought FM3145 and FR CC 2765 the other day, my budget is limited!), but I like the overall tone of the work. It fits in with the Combine military as we know it and serves as a good bridge between H: RW and the original House sourcebook. That said, I have a few nitpicks.


1) The general blandness of the DCMS in general. I guess this is a problem I've always had with House Kurita's regiments, even back in the day. The DCMS is defined by it's general philosophy rather than it's individual parts. You have the great mass of district regiments, the Sword of Light as the pinnacle, the Prosperpina Hussars as the mobile reserve, the Sun Zhang Cadres as training units, and the Arkab Legions as a unique subforce that provides an alternative to the 'samurai in giant robots'. Very conventional compared to the more colorful brigades of the other house armies. In 3025 and beyond you had some units that broke this mold (The Legion of Vega, Ryuken, Genyosha etc.) and give the Dracs some color, but I guess in this era there's no room for that... even with 114 regiments to flesh out. Is the Otomo even listed or are they not a full regiment?

2) The section on the training academies. No mention of An Ting Academy, I guess it was not formed for a few more years, so that leaves the usual suspects like Sun Zhang. Can't there have been at least one academy that existed exclusively in the Star League era? Sometimes it feels like the writers want to play it safe on the issues that have the most wiggle room. (And then retcon long-established canon with no warning. Looking at you planetary populations.)

3) Why define the size of the conventional and aerospace forces? They don't define it in the report on the Capellans, and who wants to bet that they won't on the other states? I remember that TPTB said at one point they were moving away from such things to prevent the setting from becoming too limited, but that concept is violated again, and not even in a consistent manner. You either get your writing staff to define these things for every faction or not at all. This problem goes back to FM: SLDF as well, but I'm not going to start getting into that one right now.

Overall I'm pleased with what I read despite my harsh words above, and getting this PDF will definitely be on my New Year's resolutions. Maybe by that time the AFFS report will be out too. I'd like to think this series will be finished by the end of spring at the latest so we can move on to the early Succession Wars material by late Summer or Fall. The size of the House Armies in 2785 is something worth spending at least a chapter or two of ink on.

Yeah I meant Vigilants, not Vincents.

Personally I think the DC fleets would be far superior to the Capellan ones.  The Capellan Fleets have 1 Du Shi Wang, 2 Cruisers (Soyal or Aegis) and 2-3 destroyers or Corvettes.  The DC fleet has a huge number of fighters- 72 from the Samarkand alone, while the CapCon ships have almost no defense against fighters. Yes the CC fleet can carry fighter transports, but then again so can the DC Fleet.  So I suspect in a 1 on 1 fight, the DC's fighters would shred the CapCon ships.