this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2024
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On the different game, same version number thing: That's a tradition that dates to the mid-90's with the 3 games published under the title Mechwarrior 2.
31st Century Combat was the first, it featured two campaigns from both sides of the Wolf/Jade Falcon Refusal War. Ghost Bear's Legacy is also post-Clan invasion but largely to do with the Draconis Combine. MW2 Mercenaries is set pre-invasion up through the Battle of Luthien.
Mechwarrior 4 was fairly similar; Vengeance was a relatively small story set on Kentares IV (and its moon) and is kind of a microcosm of the FedCom Civil War. Black Knight does continue the bad ending of Vengeance, and MW4: Mercenaries is more broadly about the FedCom Civil War; most missions are either Davion or Steiner aligned though other units and factions appear (including the Jade Falcons and the Capellans). Kentares IV isn't so much as mentioned.
This is something I don't think any of the Mechwarrior games ever really brought to life because yes the Clans had outright superior weapons and the Inner Sphere to my knowledge never won a toe-to-toe fight during the invasion. Name one time an inner sphere lance stood against a Clan star in a fair fight and won. The clans ultimately lost because it turns out blitzkrieg is a dumber thing to base a religion around than the phone company. And it's really difficult to build an action cockpit simulator game around that as a primary gameplay mechanic.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Wolcott did just this and turned the tide. The Battle of Tukayyid in particular?
And yeah the rest of your post is good... I guess I'm still just kinda confused why Piranha doesn't really use the canon narrative to drive their stories. It raises the stakes in each game, which is great for player engagement.
Wolcott comes the closest as the Kuritans did actually answer the batchall and bid the fight, they played by the clan's rules. They also presented the Genyosha as green troops instead of the elite force they were, and they dug traps, hid explosives and hung strips of metal from the trees in the swamp they were to fight in. I see it as reaching a similar place that the Lyrans did at Twycross, both took significant planning ahead to take advantage of prevailing conditions that reduced some of the clans' technical advantages, both involved setting traps, and both still resulted in a lengthy and brutal knock down drag out fight.
As for Tukayyid, the clans lost at Tukayyid through a failure of doctrine. With the exception of the Wolves, the clans thought they were fighting a trial of possession. Comstar thought they were fighting a siege. Comstar was right.