Welcome to Ninyu Kerai's Battletech page. Don't expect to see that many
pictures or other graphics on this page, as I don't plan on posting that
many pictures for a bit yet :) This is a page dedicated to the subject of
Battletech, in all it's many forms (the board game and the Microprose/Microsoft
games being the main subjects of discussion here for now). When I get around
to it, I may put up more files, but they do tend to eat up server space, so
for now what you see is what you get :)
Just who is Ninyu Kerai, anyhow?
Ninyu Kerai is
known as Clavell[WD]DCMS in Mechwarrior 4. The person who plays Ninyu/Clavell
(me) is Stanley Wilhelm, and he has been playing various versions of Battletech
since 1983. Stanley Wilhelm also is a Star Trek fan, but this is not a Star
trek fan page, so that's the last you will hear of ST here :).
What is Battletech?
Battletech is:
1) a board game produced by FASA Corporation that is a simulation of combat
involving 10- to 12-meter tall vaguely humanoid piloted war machines called
BattleMechs that takes place in a ficticious 31st century; 2) a series of
computer games produced by Activision (and now Microprose and Microsoft)
under license from FASA Corporation that is a translation of said board game
to a computerized simulation of combat involving said BattleMechs, which
can be played both in single-player (offline) mode and in multiplayer (online)
mode via LAN, IPX network, or modem-to-modem play that takes place during
the years 3044-3063.
Who are Wolf's Dragoons?
Wolf's Dragoons
are 5 regiments of mercenaries that mysteriously appeared in the Inner Sphere
in 3005, near the periphery border of Houses Davion and Kurita, with brand-new
'Mechs that had not been seen since the fall of the Star League, some of the
rarest JumpShips in the Inner Sphere, and a massive orbital repair facility.
Not being one to question too closely the motives and equipment of 5 full
regiments of mercenaries that were offering their services to him, Prince
Ian Davion quickly gave the Wolf's Dragoons a 5-year contract, and sent them
to the Davion-Liao border, where they quickly established a reputation for
fearless and victorious combat against the Capellan Confederation. In 3008,
the Dragoons were recalled by Colonel Jaime Wolf, the overall commander of
the Dragoons, to their base on New Valencia, which was to later become famous
as the first of the Dragoons mysterious "supply runs". In 3010, the Dragoons
signed a contract with the Capellan Confederation, and quickly found themselves
fighting against the forces of House Marik. Eventually, the Mariks came to
so fear the Dragoons that they retreated from battle rather than face the
Dragoons. In 3013, the Dragoons found themselves in service to Duke Anton
Marik, who shortly thereafter declared himsself Captain-General of the Free
Worlds League, thereby touching off the Marik Civil War of 3014-3016. During
the course of the Marik Civil War, Marik loyalist forces put so much pressure
on the Dragoons that they could do little to support other rebel forces, which
created great tension between the Dragoons and Anton Marik. This tension reached
the breaking point when Anton Marik arrested Colonel Joshua Wolf, Jaime's
brother, and 27 other Dragoon support personnel at the Dragoon's temporary
headquarters on New Delos. This so infuriated the Dragoons that they immediately
launched an all-out attack on the rebel forces on New Delos, using all 5
regiments of Dragoons. These massive assaults only served to pin down the
bulk of the rebel forces, while Natasha Kerensky, commander of the soon-to-be
famous Black Widow Battalion, took her Black Widow's on an attack at the
headquarters of Anton Marik himself, in an effort to free the Dragoons being
held by Anton Marik. Natasha discovered that Anton had killed all the Dragoons
he had arrested. For the next two days, the Dragoons went on a rampage, destroying
most anything they saw in a fit of rage. To this day, the Dragoons have vowed
never to forgive or forget the incident on New Delos, or to allow such a
situation to occur again. At the conclusion of the Marik Civil War, the Drafoons
braced themselves for an assault by the loyalist Marik forces, but instead
they got a contract offer from Janos Marik, who let them spend the first
three years of their new contract on garrison duty, rebuilding their strength.
In 3019, the Dragoons went on one of the most daring deep-strike raids in
the history of the Inner Sphere to attack the 'Mech factories on Hesperus
II, the largest 'Mech factory complex in the entire Inner Sphere (and also
one of the most heavily defended). A spy in the Marik court revealed the
attack plan to the defenders of Hesperus II, which resulted in a very warm
welcome for the Dragoons. Despite facing a well-planned defense, and an
ambush by a fresh regiment of elite mercenaries right at the moment of seeming
victory, the Dragoons nearly took their objective, but had to flee the planet
when their forces became too weakened to long survive. Shortly after this
battle, the Dragoons disappeared again on their second "supply run", returning
in 3020 with more 'Mechs and fresh supplies. Shortly afterwards, the Dragoons
signed a contract with the Lyran Commonwealth at the request of then-Archon
Katrina Steiner (the original Katrina, not the usurper that has stolen her
name in the 3050's) that included a clause that allowed the Dragoons to terminate
the contract at any time of their choosing. It was during this contract that
Jaime Wolf first met a Tai-i in the DCMS named Minobu Tetsuhara, who was
then serving in the elite 2nd Sword of Light regiment. Minobu Tetsuhara spared
Jaime Wolf's life when he could have killed him (Jaime's Archer was crippled,
and was thus an easy target. Tetsuhara left him to survive the battle, desiring
a future confrontation when both warriors would be at full strength, thus
providing a true test of their skills). Jaime never forgot this event, which
helped shape future events. After this battle, expected battles did not take
place, and so Jaime Wolf terminated the contract in 3022, when Jaime Wolf
signed a contract to work for the Draconis Combine at the request of the
Coordinator, Takashi Kurita. This contract came to a violent end, due to
the machinations of Warlord Grieg Samsonov, Warlord of Galedon, whose District
the Dragoons had been stationed in. The Dragoons allowed their contract with
the Combine to end before attacking Combine forces in a private war between
the Combine and the Dragoons, right before the start of the 4th Sucession
War. The Dragoons signed a new contract with the Federated Suns shortly after
the start of the 4th War, and were used as stalking horses by the Fox, Hanse
Davion, Prince of the Federated Suns, against the Combine, keeping the Combine's
attention focused on the Dragoons, allowing the Fox to conduct his war against
the Capellan Confederation relatively free of distractions from the Combine.
Currently, the Dragoons are in service to no one (3063), and are available
for hire on their home base of Outreach, given to them free and clear by
Hanse Davion following the 4th War.
A partial Cast of Characters from MPBT: Solaris and MPBT: 3025 (both games
now dead, BTW)
(updated to reflect current info I have
on these individuals)
Dalfsson *DCMS*,
former Training Officer of the Sun Zhang Military Academy of the Draconic
Combine Mustered Soldiery (or DCMS, for short), former CO of the Dieron
Military District, a.k.a. Psychodwarf (a real nice guy, and my brother in
real life, so I had better call him a real nice guy, because I would never
hear the end of it otherwise. Besdies, he owns the computer I use, so I have
to be nice to him :). He is, in truth, a nice guy, and his favorite sight
on Solaris is a jumping mech that is airborne, and within range of his guns.
He calls such mechs "skeet", as in skeet shooting :)) (also serves as online
coordinator for message board violations on AOL and Gamestorm and as a Helper
on Gamestorm, can also be found playing Legends of Kesmai as Kingdalf or
Dalfsson)
Gunji-no-Kanrei
Tarl Cabot HXO (known to many Kuritans as the "King of the Grasshopper"
due to his skills in that type of mech. If you see him in a 'Hopper, be prepared
for a fight to the death) (current info reflects his current status on the
Gamestorm MPBT server)
Pacer of the Golden Horde, former Clanner,
current leader of the Mongol Hordes on the Gamestorm MPBT server, a guy
I have known quite a while now in MPBT, and a very good pilot, with more
than a few opinions (and no hesitiation to share them with anyone he can
get the attention of). Pacer has an at-times bizzare sense of humor, but
he can also be dead serious, and he is far more mature then his youth would
suggest. If you get on his bad side, run. Run fast. And pray he isn't catching
up to you.
Other names may
be added later, when I get the time and can think of something to say about
them :)
Battletech-related links
If any of the links below don't
work, e-mail me at the address given below, and I'll try to fix the problem
as soon as possible.
Use the above link
(link now broken, I know) to go to the official website of possibly (in my
not-so-humble opinion) the best Battletech game to be released in the next
year, a game that many people have been waiting for since 1993: Multiplayer
Battletech: 3025, the game of strategic and tactical combat in the year 3025
among the 5 Great Houses of the Inner Sphere. The game is planned to take
place among more than 1900 planets, involving up to 10,000 players per Great
House Army. The game is tenatively scheduled to enter Closed Beta test status
sometime this Winter, with a (very tenative) public release date of sometime
during the Spring of 2000 (with all such dates from Kesmai Corporation, take
them with a large grain of salt, as the game will be released when Kesmai
thinks it is ready, and not before :=))
The MoB
: (link may not work) The home page of the MoB (formerly known as the Ministry
of Battletech), a group of fiercely-dedicated Battletech fans, led by the
legendary GodMom of the MoB, Camille Klein (who is also a good freind of
mine, and a rabid hater of spammers, clueless luzers, and idiots in general).
Visit the MoB's web site to find-a out for-a yourself what the MoB is about,
capisce, paisano?
Slayer's
Battletech Page
: A good Battletech-related page, it has a
lot of good stuff relating to the board game and the Activision computer
games. He also has his own files page, with a bunch of good files such as
MechEngineer Pro (a mech builder program for the board game), The Drawing
Board (another 'Mech builder program for Windows 95/98), Vehicle Factory
(a vehicle builder program for the board game), and Mechwar version 1.12
(a computerized version of the board game itself that runs under DOS, but
the original programmer is writing a Win95-based version of this program
that should be out later this year, hopefully).
Kali
: This is a program that "fools" your PC into thinking you are part of
an IPX network, allowing you to connect to a Kali server for playing such
games as Diablo, Warcraft2, Netmech, and Mercnet, among others. It comes
in DOS (not recommended), Win95 (best bet for PC users with Win95),
and Mac versions. The latest version of Kali is Kali beta version 1.99d.
FASA
: (link now dead) The home page of the company that unleashed the game
called Battletech, which has been in existence for something like 15 years
now. They have had their problems of late, but they are also responsible
for Virtual World's Battletech section, as well as overseeing the work being
done on both MechCommander and Mechwarrior 3 (and 4). UPDATE: FASA is closing
down effective once their remaining inventory has been sold. WizKids, run
by FASA founder Jordan Weisman, has assumed control of the Battletech and
Shadowrun universes.
Activision
: The home page of the company responsible for the production of the Mechwarrior
2 series of games. You can find the official patches for any of their games
here, as well as a downloadable version of Netmech for DOS (an original
CD version of Mechwarrior 2 is needed to host a game of Netmech, and is strongly
recommended for play, regardless of whether you are hosting a game or not)
id
Software
: Yes, this site has absolutely *nothing* to do with Battletech, but I also
enjoy playing a couple of games from these folks, Doom II and Quake, so I
figured I'd put up a link to their web site, just for the heck of it :). Quake
II 3.20 is out, along with Capture The Flag version 1.50 for Quake II, and
Quake III Arena is probably hitting some store shelves even as I type this
:).
EvilNET
: The website of a dedicated group of Battletech fans (who also like other
things mechs, such as Heavy Gear, Robotech, and Shogo) who also happen to
run an IRC server where you can find me some nights (the server is irc.jurai.org,
port #6667, channel is #battleforce, the main "entry" channel for the entire
server, and the main home to the BT folks there). Read the server rules
on the MOTD window, and join the gang. We don't bite. Much. :)
I'll post some
other links as soon as I get them, and if you have a good Battletech web
page you want me to add, send me the URL for it to the address listed below
and I'll check it out. If it's a good page, I'll put up a link to it! But
please, DON'T send me the URL to a links page, please! I want links to pages
with content, not a page that just sends you to other links!
Other Battletech resources
Two other good
places to go to find out more about Battletech are the Internet Usenet newsgroups
rec.games.mecha and alt.games.mechwarrior2. To find out more about these newsgroups,
and the whole range of Usenet newsgroups, visit
Deja News
Files
The Drawing Board
: This is, in my opinion (and the opinion of many), one of the best 'Mech
editors around for creating revised versions of the old 'Mechs from FASA (and
creating 'Mechs of your own) for use with FASA's BattleTech board game. The
latest version includes damn near every piece of game technology (Levels One,
Two, and Three) introduced by FASA, up thru and including Field Manual: ComStar.
Personal 'Mechs for use with The Drawing Board
: This file is a collection of all my versions of FASA's 'Mechs (up thru,
and including, Technical Readout 3060), as well as some 'Mechs I created for
my own amusement. Be warned, tho: I have this love of XL engines, so if XL-engine
eqipped 'Mechs aren't your cup of tea...
3060-era 'Mechs for use with The Drawing Board
: This file is actually a collection of two .zip files combined into one,
which contains most all of the 'Mechs introduced in Technical Readout 3060
(the TR with all the crappy Plog-created 'Mech artwork).
3050+ to 3025 Tech Refits
: This file contains my "retrograde"
refits of most of FASA's Tech Readout 3050 and later 'Mechs using only Level
1 tech (except for the Clan 'Mechs, which use only IS Level 2 tech
in place of their usual Clan tech).
Send suggestions,
comments, criticisms, etc. to:
Ninyu Kerai
This
page last updated on November 6th, 2001 at 3:30 am EST
MechWarrior, BattleTech,
BattleMech, and 'Mech are trademarks or registered trademarks of FASA Corporation
and Microsoft Corporations. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks
are the property of their respective holders.
