BattleTech Lore & History - First Succession War: Phoney War (MechWarrior Lore)

[@Archangelm127]

Sven posts this. BPL post the Hunchback. Big Red posts the Timberwolf. Truly we are living in a Golden Age of BattleTube. ❤

[@aaronwinberry3490]

It's something I have prayed to the great Blake for when i was but a child.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

I'm very glad to be a part of it. Has been wonderful to see my audience grow as the YT one does too. More BT channels is good for everyone.

[@cm3291]

⁠@@SvenVanDerPlankyou do amazing work, you deserve much more attention than you get.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thank you CM, appreciate your continued support.

[@Kol_0oo]

@@SvenVanDerPlankyour research, production quality and voice acting/emotion is absolutely incredible. Thanks for BT content

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

We're back baby! New episode every Saturday throughout September. Hope to see you there.

[@fredlandry6170]

Thank you I look forward to the Succession Wars great work on the previous videos I love them.

[@EricDKaufman]

Hell Yeah!

[@macrux152__8]

Gods you're gonna shove in all the fights with the warships aren't ya? Gods I wanna know how many Capellan ships went down in just the 1st Succession war.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Of course. They'll soon be gone from the timeline altogether so I've got to give them the spotlight while I still can. Also, about 85% of them.

[@harvestblades]

Weekly episodes?! That is outstanding! Thank you Sven for your most excellent content.

[@richmcgee434]

The opening bodycount graphic is as effective as it is stunning.

[@doorcf]

that intro is MAGNIFICENT! It hammers home just how much damage, death and destruction this first war brought.

[@MM22966]

That casualty graph really hits hard...

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

I tried a few different ways of visualising the losses, but found what worked best was just stacking them super high and then fading to black long before we reached the top of the graph. Really happy with how it came out.

[@MM22966]

Yes, it was impressive. I didn't realize how bad it was compared to even the Reunification War, but all that WMD and orbital bombardment make a difference. And of course, the field of battle was far wider@@SvenVanDerPlank

[@jamesperkins191]

@@MM22966 The Reunification War had reconstruction money coming into the Periphery afterwards. Not this time though. And many times, whole planets died off with the loss or failure of planetary habitation systems, and sometimes the tech itself was lost so they could never be recovered

[@MM22966]

@@jamesperkins191 Yes, I remember specifically in early sourcebooks how they talked about the breakdown in expensive/lostech water-purification systems caused many worlds to be abandoned. (in addition to use of WMD/other warfare)

[@spotH3D]

That opening casualty graph with the music in the intro. Perfection.

[@Cross_Malaki]

The Decision is Made is such a haunting track, especially in light of that graph...

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

It's one of the best tracks from the MW5 soundtrack. I knew I was going to use it to open this series for many months before I started and had a loose idea as to how that would look.

[@gregdomenico1891]

I've been waiting for this. It's about time someone covered the Succession Wars.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

The 2800-2900s is a period that really deserves more attention than it gets. I think most of my audience is only vaguely aware of the atrocities of the 1st/2nd Succession Wars.

[@fzyturtle]

I've always assumed, based on my original copies of TRO 3025 and TRO 3026, that the devastation was so severe and widespread that even basic information about anything before the second succession war was more or less destroyed or guesswork. There are so many contradictions, mutually exclusive events, and references to incorrect entries in those books, that to me, it became part of the universe. The fact that there are giant plot holes and contradictory stories is just part of the fun. "It says here that Mercer Ravinion used a company of Stingers, but over there it says he had a battalion of Wasps?" eh, probably the records got lost, destroyed, mixed into something else entirely. who knows?

[@cropathfinder]

BPL and sven videos a week apart, just what the doctor ordered xD

[@Korraganitar]

Well, this ought to be interesting. Here is hoping Sven makes a mention of each time the main production line for a famous Battlemech gets blown up. Feel like that would be an amusing way to see the tech decline caused by these wars.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

I have tracked them (and the shipyards) on the maps so you can see them slowly disappearing. I think it would have slowed things down too much to mention every factory though (and we have an incomplete data set so it would have been prone to errors).

[@Korraganitar]

​@@SvenVanDerPlankfair enough. Any chance there are at least mentions of when particularly famous designs are lost?

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

It's a good suggestion but it's very unlikely at this stage. I've already finished my scripts and don't have that information researched. Going back to add it in now would only delay my schedule. I could retroactively cover it in the Second Succession War series, as a key part of the story in that conflict is the gradual disappearance of technology.

[@thomasrose4523]

And that casualty log is like the Energizer bunny, it just kept going and going and going...

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

And it's still going throughout this video. Don't want to spoil things, but it's going to become somewhat of a motif for this series.

[@thomasrose4523]

@@SvenVanDerPlank oh I know it! BattleTech essentially takes the line of Fallout: "War. War never changes..." and says hold my beer, overkill always has room to grow...

[@Genghis_Khaan_]

7:25 “Ulaanbaatar” is the Mongolian capital. I’m new to battletech and I’ve noticed it has some influence from Mongols. They call leaders “Khan”, which is just another word for king in mongolian.

[@wazup85]

the pan up on the death counter great touch

[@josephbroseph3003]

As someone who’s slowly going through each era sourcebook starting with the succession wars im very excited for this.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Hopefully it lives up to your expectations. The main sourcebook I used was Historical: First Succession Wars (unsurprisingly) but I also include several details from other sources not present in that book. There's a full list in the description if you're interested in where my info comes from.

[@Kalabajooie]

Just found the Star League Civil War series. You know I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Well I hope you enjoy them. Lots to get through in order to catch up, even more if you watch the earlier stuff too.

[@thomasrose4523]

This is a great start to the weekend! Yesterday we had Big Red's Timber Wolf video, and Tex's Hunchback video before that, now your first Succession War video, and another from one of my Resident Evil creator's channels tomorrow. Hope you're doing well, and are pumped up for The Dragon's DLC

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Glad you're having a good weekend. New MW5 DLC means more great music from Sean Kolton. One day I'll actually reach the 3025s in this series and then I'll finally sit down the play the games.

[@thomasrose4523]

@@SvenVanDerPlank Thank you. And I hope you're having a great weekend as well!

[@lexington476]

Oh we get teased for a week. I can't wait for the first succession war. Thank you!

[@HPGBlackout]

What a great start! 🎉🎉 I am really looking forward to the rest of the series in the coming weeks!

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thank you. I can't wait to see how folks react to some of the upcoming episodes later this month.

[@shawnarmitage7955]

God, guns, and Battletech. The high quality of media that is put out by the Fandom is the only reason I got a local group going. Thanks for helping the small groups we need and appreciate it.

[@polaris88]

Thank you Sven! Im glad finally someone is gonna tackle this era!

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

It's perhaps the darkest and most apocalyptic period in the setting, it does surprise me how little folks know about it. I know Madcat529 did a series on it some years back, but he spent around 60 minutes for the entire Succession Wars era (a fairly normal/sane amount of time). I'm hoping to add a zero to the end of that number, lol.

[@SulliMike23]

I look forward to this. Can’t wait to see the beginning of the chaos that was the Succession Wars.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

This first episode is just a teaser of what's to come. A light sprinkling of WMDs here and there as it were.

[@Femerenden]

I was waiting for this and am looking very much forwards to it. It is the ultimate "and than things got worse..." period of Battletech lore.

[@floriangallus7760]

Imo this is *the* period of Battletech that makes it feel like Battletech. The strange mixture of Japanese Mecha fiction, 80s cyberpunk, early modern 30years war style socio-political situation and full on Reagan/Thatcher era when-the-wind-blows-nuclear-apocalypse dystopia somewhere in the vast cold expanse of outer space is what gives me that warm fuzzy feeling inside, and I seriously don't know why. *Dropship Thunder playing in the background*

[@gregdomenico1891]

Untill 3068, when some wacked out religous group said "Hey, let's re-enact the First Succession War all over again"!

[@richardwheatley5979]

That's a hell of an opening. Just subscribed 25 seconds into the first video I've seen. Very well done

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Well thank you. I hope the rest of the video lived up to that opening. If you're just joining us now, the next episode is an overview so it's a good place to jump in, but if you're interested, I have around 15 hours of BT videos leading up to this point.

[@ryanjones6384]

Been waiting for someone to take a serious dive at the early succession wars. Looking forward to this.

[@crashtestdummy9985]

It is time. Thank you Sven for all your work in sharing with us what has become for me the absolute top fictional verse.

[@maxgaj3015]

Awesome, I've always wanted someone to do a series on the succession wars. It's one of those things that's always talked about but for newer entries into the lore like myself it's not that easy to get into.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Yeah, it's easier to point to the Fall of the Star League as influencing future events, what with the Clan Invasion, but there's always this big ominous shadow looming in the background that separates now from then. That's the Succession Wars, and I'm excited to go through it with everyone.

[@chrisl10308]

Another absolutely amazing job.

[@shadowkeep2949]

Been waiting a while for the succession wars to begin. can’t wait for the rest of the series

[@Seeric85]

Very nice work, looking forward to more of this. I never took an in-depth look at the era between the fall of the Star League and the Introtech era of 3025.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

It's a bit of a black hole in most folks familiarity with the timeline. We can see it's aftereffects, but what actually went on (besides rampant WMD usage) is a bit of a mystery.

[@MDDwarf]

Great production and just the right amount of depth, well done good Sir.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thank you kindly.

[@walkwithoutrhythm9858]

Over a year ago, I found your Age of War video. It was the first Battletech lore video I ever watched. I have followed your content ever since, and I've never been disappointed. Every new video I watch from you makes me pull up MW5 and crack out a contract or ten. I dont make videos myself, but I believe the effort needed for them is substantial. Thank you for putting forth the effort to make your videos this brilliantly. I eagerly await your next release. Keep up the outstanding work!

[@greysonjones5429]

Man, great video, can't wait for the next one. I know literally nothing about the first three succession wars, though, the original big Succ especially I have no clue about. I'm so hyped to learn. Your documentary style is amazing.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. You're definitely not alone in having a gap in your knowledge for the early Succession Wars. Folks know the Star League and 4th Succession War pretty well but no-one ever talks about those 240 years between them.

[@cygryl]

So fantastic seeing this Golden Age ofBattletech swelling with lore and new product. I remember the dark ages of FASA closing and honestly never figured on Battletech surviving the debacle that was MW:DA. Thank you Sven for this amazing content.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

You're welcome. I had never given any thought to the fact that the Dark Age in universe mirrored the dark times of the '00s when it wasn't certain if the franchise would survive.

[@cygryl]

@@SvenVanDerPlank it was a trying time to be sure. Yes FanPro was still producing product on license from Wizkids for Battletech and fleshing out the Blakist temper tantrum and intervening years but very limited when it came to new product overall.

[@michaelman957]

That intro graphic was... chilling.

[@usauk3605]

Yes, finally, it begins. I have been waiting for you to get to the Succession Wars for so long, don’t get me wrong, I have enjoyed all your other videos, but this is what I have been looking forward to. Awesome, introduction, can’t wait to see what comes next.

[@Echo1608.]

Oh now I am EXCITED! I'm new to battletech, I've slowly been getting more and more info, I've only heard about how crazy the 1st succession war was. Now I'll get to learn more and more.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

It's something that's only whispered about in the modern era. 1st and 2nd Succession Wars are in a weird spot where they're directly responsible for the situation in 3025, but don't really change the politics at all. So as horrific as they were, the timeline kind of outgrows them.

[@michaeljimenez7960]

Me, watching the intro: "Surely, the intro is exaggerating the amount of deaths in the First Succession War..." About five videos later: "Oh... this is kind of an underestimate, isn't it?"

[@thecommuterzombie]

I love the style and focus of this video and I'm really looking forwards to the rest of the series.

[@vikingkicker4026]

Man I'm hyped for these. What a fantastic start to this series!

[@tx31]

Oh boi, we getting to the BT edition of oppenheimer front row seats meme. Next stop, war crime o'clock here we come! XD

[@VoiceOfTheEmperor]

I have missed you man. It's good to see you again.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

I have missed being here. I'm pleased to say that there will be regular uploads every Saturday this month so we can really get moving with this series.

[@Schwifter_]

I'm loving all this content, top notch work. I hope you are able to cover the clans and such in such detail.

[@devalk_]

A really great opening this one, Both on the video itself and to the FSW as a whole. Very much looking forward to seeing you cover the rest of it.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thank you. I really like how the intro to this one turned out. Can't wait to see how people react to the later episodes.

[@Veretax]

Wow that first scene comparing death toll from age of war to Star League Civil War, then adding the next war... mind blowing.

[@ogrehaslayers605]

The First Succession War was WILD! I always kind of knew it was, but it was abstract. Hearing it like this really nails what it was was like. Wow

[@derekburge5294]

Criminally undersupported for the quality of your work.

[@TAVAAR7]

I was holding off watching these so I could binge them back to back...9 of the announced 15 are out currently sooooo, guess who couldn't wait any longer because they enjoy your vids so much lol

[@rafale1981]

Glad to see you continuing the good work!

[@Brazouck]

Amazingly well done video. For me non english natives the subtitles are superb, thanks a lot !

[@gs1312]

Another fantastic bit of lore

[@leesouthcott8184]

Excellent as always, can't wait for you to cover Operation Bulldog when you get to it!

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

That's a long way off still but it's absolutely one of the bits I'm most looking forward to. MechCommander was my introduction to the series so you can bet your ass that Port Arthur is getting more than a name drop when we get there.

[@leesouthcott8184]

@@SvenVanDerPlank I'll be there when the premiere is t-1:32 😄

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Thank you for another great lore video!

[@stephenrickman4300]

Eagerly awaited this Sven, ever since I watched your first vid about the age of war.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Hope it lives up to expectations.

[@redbaronsnoopy2346]

Thank you, looking forward to it.

[@LmC_Gh0STjt]

Can't wait! thank you so much for your quality content!🎉

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

My pleasure. Looking forward to seeing folks reaction.

[@thomasc.3832]

Wow looking forward to another great series! It really is amazing to have someone who is so dedicated to going into such detail about the lore

[@reecedignan8365]

Can’t wait to watch this entire series. Already sent your star league one to several friends who’ve been poking their head into BT and they absolutely love it. Hope to sit with a few more of my mates over the coming days and watch together this and your star league one with them too.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thank you. I really appreciate you sharing the videos around with folks, it helps me a lot.

[@nemamiah7832]

High time to catch up! Thank you for your hard work.

[@Wrangler-fp4ei]

What great introduction to the First Succession War!!

[@Dracobyte]

Mr. Sven you deserve way more subs and views!

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thank you, I appreciate you saying as much. This video is the fastest I've ever hit 1000 views on something I've made so that's really positive.

[@Dracobyte]

@@SvenVanDerPlank you deserve all the success in the world!

[@AW-wf2dx]

Big up, this is long anticipated.

[@v13r3r]

Brilliant. Keep going Sven!

[@BunWithAGun31]

Sven doing the lord's work

[@workshoptelescope]

Best scripts in all Battletech content.

[@floriangallus7760]

This is the best thing to happen to sunday morning since coffee! Also funny because just last night I played the first irl game of Battletech in almost a year. It was an introductory game with a friend who is nee to the setting and just two Mechs, but it was a game. Call me a happy man.

[@daric_]

This is amazing, thank you. I've wanted to get into Battletech lore, but apart from just reading Sarna, trying to get access to all these old lore books seems daunting. It's hard to know where to start.

[@shagakhan9442]

Best Battletech channel!

[@foxtrot-roleplays8815]

The First succession war gives me a real hollow feeling after the buildup to the collapse of the Star League.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

The 1stSW has been this ominous dark cloud floating in the distance, but now the storm is almost upon us.

[@pa_gaming_dad2810]

Great start that looks like to be a really entertaining series.

[@filthyletonk1333]

Brilliant! thank you so much for your hard work.

[@ebla83]

Thank you Sven!

[@gregbird5684]

Great as always good sir!😊👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@Ironclockwork]

If it were possible to define a war of this scale with a single word, the word I would choose would be "consequences". A sobering account of how quickly the situation in the Inner Sphere sank. And to think it's not even remotely the end of the account of this affair.

[@lexington476]

15 episodes, I don't know how you do that 🙂. You're a much better Storyteller than me.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Since recording that outro I've actually decided to condense a couple of the shorter chapters. So there's actually only going to be 13 I think. Still going to come to the same runtime in total though, around 5 hours.

[@RenBR]

Awesome video...please keep up the good work :D

[@rickypalacios1554]

I loved the battletech history lesson I am learning a lot.

[@EricDKaufman]

Time to get back to business. These are great!

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Too long in coming but I'm glad to finally get these out there. First couple are just setting the scene, but I can't wait to see the reaction once the nukes start flying in earnest.

[@EricDKaufman]

Nukes are merely an inconvenience@@SvenVanDerPlank

[@SPASTICSTONER]

Can't wait for the rest of the episode and eventually get another hours-long combined video.

[@fredlandry6170]

YES Hallelujah! Thank you!

[@Nerd_Rage255]

Great content!

[@NomicFin]

Minoru Kurita is usually assigned the blame for starting the Succession Wars for being the first to openly declare himself First Lord, but I believe the conflict really started during the Lyran invasion of Bolan. That was the first case of escalation from relatively small-scale raids and skirmishes between the Houses as they sought to claim former Hegemony worlds into a full-blown invasion, and the first time the kind of strategies that would come to define the first Succession War, unrestricted use of strategic nuclear weapons against civilian targets, were used. When Kurita declared himself the First Lord he was simply the first to say out loud what all the Successor Lords had been privately thinking for some time.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

They all need to be blamed equally. Minoru doesn't deserve more blame because he was the first to declare himself, but neither do the Lyrans deserve more for firing the first shot when everyone else was already taking aim and about to fire anyway.

[@hairychris444]

I always like to think that Battletech (huge warcrimes) grows up to be Warhammer 40k (really, really huge warcrimes).

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Ha, could be. Humanity is about to launch its first Exterminatus in a few chapters time.

[@nono2645]

WHOOOOOO battletech lore

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

It's the simple things in life...

[@spartanalex9006]

No! It premiers while I’m at work.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Sorry to hear you can't make it. I plan to have another premiere every Saturday this month at the same time. Hopefully you can make one of those.

[@dmaxcustom]

This is most excellent.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thanks, glad you think so.

[@lexington476]

3:41 what's that little red spot to the northwest of the lyran commonwealth? I thought the rim world's republic was done by this point.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

It's the Finmark Free Republic. Next episode is a Political Overview of the Inner Sphere (circa 2787), where I'll go over what every colour block on the map means. Long overdue because people often ask what the different sections of the Successor States represent.

[@gregdomenico1891]

Grab your popcorn and get comfortable ladies and gents, it's about to get good.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

If by "good" you mean "billions vaporised," then sure, it's a grand old time 😉

[@gregdomenico1891]

@@SvenVanDerPlank Oh come on, that's just another Tuesday in 40K! In all seriosness, it was meant as we finally get the coverage and justness that the Succession Wars deserve.

[@jamesperkins191]

Well, we shoulda backed Amaris...

[@warkardz]

These lore videos are my ASMR.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

You're not alone. Many people have told me they listen to them in order to relax. I feel like there's an insult somewhere in there (i.e. my videos are so dull and boring they put people to sleep) but I'm just glad folks are enjoying them in whatever way they are.

[@warkardz]

@@SvenVanDerPlank well, you're about to be my sanity for the evening. Thanks, Sven

[@NewsOfTheInnerSphere]

How House Davion made it out of the First Succession War is beyond me.

[@mathewkelly9968]

Gunna be alot of 6:30 am alarms on a Sunday for me .......... The Church of BattleTech Lore

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Ah sorry. I try to pick a time that most folks can make but there's always gonna be some timezones that are just horrid. If you do set an alarm then know that I appreciate you making the effort to tune in.

[@Mister_Brushface]

Curiously indeed how Blake overlooked Venus…… very curious.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

If that sounded like I knew some secret, I don't. I just included it because multiple sourcebooks which made me think it might relate to something later in the timeline than I'm familiar with.

[@Mister_Brushface]

@@SvenVanDerPlank (in caricature)good sir, you must read between the lines to find the -put on tin foil hat- truth. Why would Venus remain as is if not to hide something or someone. (Note I too am reading the source books but I like to look at things from a conspiratorial angle, because many people in universe had theories on one subject or another. I’m just continuing that in universe trend.)

[@stephenknizek2651]

My larger merc unit claims its origin from the Civil War/Succession Wars era. I look forward to this age of Battletech fluff getting attention.

[@dementesf]

Thanks for this. As much as I love Tex and BPL his comedic tone would not be fitting to describe the horror of the humanitarian nightmare that were the Sucession Wars

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

You're welcome. I think you can tell it in different ways. Although I tend to go for a fairly dry and sombre tone in my vids, there are definitely some shenanigans that go on that you could easily get some humour out of. Hard time believing that a BPL video wouldn't be amazing.

[@cynicalcitizen8315]

The first Succession War was inevitable, the others might be contributed to by Comstar.

[@ChaosTicket]

Ooh, so the First Succession War was just like World War 1 "The Great War". The Succession Wars never really ended and separating them is practically impossible. Each of the 5 Successor States entered conflicts at different periods and ended at different times. The Third Succession War lasted about 100years of low level conflict. The Fourth Succession War at least has a clear beginning and was a fight between the Federated Commonwealth and Capellan Confederation.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Yeah, the 1stSW sourcebook talks about that and how some historians argue that's it's all just one endless war. It also suggests that the 4thSW, which on the surface appears a distinct entity with a clear start and end like you say, is actually just a single campaign of the 3rdSW, as it mirrors Kenyon's and is dwarfed by Jinjiro's campaign during the 1stSW.

[@shagakhan9442]

Nothing better than the smell of Lyran worlds burning! 😊

[@sadiqahmed4143]

Do you plan to cover the ilclan era.?

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Yes, but I'm going through the timeline linearly, so ilClan is literally years away.

[@sadiqahmed4143]

@@SvenVanDerPlank yep

[@thorshammer8033]

Smashing the Thumbs Up button like a Clanner denied his Batchall

[@alexwatts1064]

holy heck that opening graphic

[@77professional]

Bye bye warships, industrial bases, standards of living, and all those warm feelings of humanity! The Succession Wars have arrived.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

I shed a tear for all those beautiful WarShips.

[@77professional]

@@SvenVanDerPlank You didn't hear it from me, but I don't think all those ships the phone company boys have are all "cargo" ships.

[@TheFightingNemo]

Opening casualty graph smacking us in the face like a brick...