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The Mandalorian Mercenaries is a faction that entertains a very particular diplomacy. We are quasi-lawful in terms of alignment, meaning we don't usually perform any sudden changes in our diplomacy board. We've been working for the Bretonian and Libertonian officials primarily ever since the faction started. Later, both the Blood Dragons and the Outcasts have been added to our client list. We also have worked for the Zoners here and there (flirting here and there with the TAZ and also working alongside and for the old Jupiter Guild).

We always get people telling us that mercenaries ought to be more flexible in terms of who they work for, aiming for profit, but we understand and are certain that being reliable and maintaining standards is better for business in the long run, specially since we're not lone mercenaries, but a whole organization. We are networkers.

Anyway, the Mandalorians is primarily a fighter oriented faction, but not only have we got a couple of gunships commissioned to the faction (mostly BHG GSs and the eventual IMG GS), but I have a couple of pilots that did adapt better flying the bigger ships as opposed to the fighter class ships. I don't really care for the ships myself (I never really used my Mandalorian GS that much and even switched it for another fighter), but as faction leader I have to take care of my people.

I must admit that I never really liked us using BHG gear. Even though we do use the BHG tag in our ships (mostly so we don't get random tags popping up across the faction's ships) and the Mercenary ID we use is sold on BHG bases, we aren't guild members, we don't behave like them and we even have had occasional quarrels with some BHG people.

I shouldn't make an out of the blue move and outlaw the use of BHG gear for the faction until I have a suitable alternative. Fact of matter is: There is no pure civilian gunship right now and probably there won't be one. One option I have is trying to cut some sort of deal with one of our current clients. We have done this before for fighter class ships with both the Blood Dragons and the Outcasts. It may happen, but it's a long shot. I would have to contact the factions, offer them something palpable in RP and then be subjected to their decision.

Before I do that, though, I would like to assess with the community what viable options we have both in terms of generic materiel and those that belong to the clients we have as listed above. The Outcasts haven't such a ship of their own, the Libertonians, the Bretonians and the Blood Dragons do.

The Bretonian gunboat is a bigger-than-I-care-for ship. Not only that, it's very iconic of the BAF, so I don't think I'd even consider that option. We've already had a ship supply deal of sorts with the Blood Dragons before, but I think I've only seen their gunship/boat(?) once, so I don't really know much about it. The Libertonian one is the most inconspicuous of the three and even the infocard somewhat corroborates with the possibility of it being sold as surplus (or doesn't it?), though I'm not sure of that. I didn't really want to have whatever ship we pick to act as a political statement, but we haven't that much options.

Besides those primary options we may go generic, though I presume there aren't many alternatives there either, or try and get some new clients elsewhere with that in mind, given we don't hurt our current diplomacy board.

So, any thoughts?

Well there's a Zoner gunboat in 4.85, and also, I hear there is a Civilian GB. Which would suit you perfectly.

zoners will sell their gunboat to anyone that can afford it - but you won t really win a fight vs. an equally skilled pilot in a military grade gunboat.

BHG gear is gonne be much more restricted i daresay - cause the BHG can only use their capitals in a certain area... hence, others shouldn t really use the gear and go elsewhere, too.

IMG gunboat - i think doom likes to have it a bit less generic and a bit more IMG.

... kusari explorer works.

come to that - the only really generic / available gunboats are the kusari explorer and the zoner gunboat, both are on the weak side. - house militaries won t really like to part with their gear - so do pirates...

maybe a MAJOR pirate organization ( corsairs, hessian, outcast ) would sell some of theirs - depending on reptuation. - but other factions won t, i guess.

edit:

listing all available gunboats:

- liberty
- bretonia
- rheinland
- kusari
- kusari explorer
- zoners
- outcasts
- corsairs
- gaians
- hessians
- BHG gunship
- BHG gunboat
- order
- nomad
- wild
- coalition
- blood dragon
- IMG
- hacker
- rogue

BHG GS is out of the question for me personally as is any other BHG equipment for that matter. I just need to convince the people that still use it to let go. It's easier done if I have options to present. Fighters and bombers are easy, as there is a myriad of suitable and good options for those. Weapons... Well, the Flashpoint against the Buckshots is debatable to say the least, but we can always go for codenames (even though I don't know what to do of those who prefer the faster refires). My biggest problem is the gunboat class ships.

As I said I want to take care of my people, and proposing the Zoner gunboat hardly qualifies as me doing that. As you've said, the IMG will no longer be an option. I agree that military organizations will hardly part with their gear. I only thought of the Liberty one because I vaguely remember it stating that the ship was build in surplus or something like that, but if the LN doesn't really treat it like that, it's completely out of the question. I get so much grief whenever I fly the last existing Mandalorian Blood Dragon that I'm even afraid to ask about another BD ship.

We do have a character involved with the Mandalorians who is a shipyard owner. He was the one who (in RP) built us a version of the now defunct Mandalorian Togo out of some washed out specifications given to us by the Blood Dragons eons ago. The way I see it, the only way we could get suitable ships is if we built our own, but given we're not an NPC faction and we're imports as far as a great portion of the server interprets us I'm highly skeptical about that possibility. And even if it was possible, we would still have to cover the period between 4.85 and 4.86(?).

EDIT:

- liberty Government stuff
- bretonia Government stuff
- rheinland Government stuff
- kusari Government stuff and they hate our guts
- kusari explorer Kusarians don't like us
- zoners Could happen, but the ship isn't really combat worthy as said
- outcasts Could try that, since we kill a lot of Corsairs for them
- corsairs They hate our guts
- gaians They (should) hate our guts
- hessians Never dealt with them one way or the other
- BHG gunship We're not Bounty Hunters and we may even hunt the hunters from time to time
- BHG gunboat We're not Bounty Hunters and we may even hunt the hunters from time to time
- order Liberty is a major client of ours
- nomad Completely out of the question
- wild Completely out of the question
- coalition They don't like us
- blood dragon Could try that
- IMG CR hate us
- hacker They probably hate our guts
- rogue They probably hate our guts

a long term contract and a relationship based on trust and reliability might help - with a faction that isn t too desperate about its gear ( outcasts for example )

smaller pirate groups will not part with their gear , cause they don t have much. - rheinland and liberty going to war will make their gear more restricted, too.

maybe the order? - but their GB was made to fit THEIR needs... its not really meant to be in the hands of anyone but the order ( its not really on the weak side ) - but if the Bs| agrees..... ( or the order council )

a contract with the IMG would probably work, too - the IMG is still a cooperation aiming for profits. - hessians might have interests, too - but i don t know if their GB is good.

rogues might always probably sell you some gunboats - they re crooks... they want money.



edit:

i think hessians might be worth trying. - you don t have dealt much with or against them in the past, i guess. - that makes it easier to score a good deal.

outcasts can always work - but its a bit old, i guess - you see outcast gear everywhere ( if you count their weapons and fighters to be outcast )

blood dragon - might be OK. not sure if their GB is combat worthy much though. - but the dragons attitute towards their ships is a bit tricky for that matter.

Given your faction's line of work and clientele, I would think about using the upcoming OC gunboat. Not like you have too many competitive options. Maybe if you did a few jobs for the OC, you could request permission to purchase a couple for the Mandalorians as reward for your successes.

You're right about the BH gear though. Not suitable at all considering the nature of your work.

The Order Gunboat , as far as my vote in the matter goes and as far as it should go , is out of the question for a group such as ours. The Order does not realy have that much resources to creat spare ships , what they build they use. And selling a quasy lawful faction who had long term agreements with the Liberty Navy and Liberty as a whole will surtenly not aid the Mandalorians in negotiations for a Gunboat.

My opinion is that we try to strengthen оur , already good , relation with the Outcasts in order to request a few GB's for us. That wont be something new , we currently have a deal with them for the Sabre. But in my opinion , for a GB we'll need to take our negotiations with them one step further.

I have a few comments, and actually a couple questions:

Kusari Explorer : No, for obvious reasons.

Zoners : Likely do-able, in RP, the question I have is in 4.85 will it still be useless?

Outcasts : Likely will end up being the most sensible option, but we may have to buy it from ROS or 101st or SOB or something. A special arrangement.

Hessians : We work for RM, so I'd say no for now, but with war coming between Liberty and Rheinland that will become strained, since we are more connected with the BAF/Liberty area.

Blood Dragons : This would be very interesting.

The thing with gunboats is that they are pieces of military hardware that are very much linked to their factions. If you get Outcast gunboats, you are making the statement "we have ties to Outcasts", and they better not be seen in Liberty or by Liberty officials, assuming you want to keep working for Liberty.

Of all the options available, the Bretonian gunboat would suit best from a political standpoint, seeing that all your clients are at least neutral to Bretonia. Obviously, the issue of the war pops up here, although, given that they are mass-produced, and that you are pretty much on the same side, fighting against Corsairs and Kusari.

The other one that you may want to consider is the Hessian gunboat. Depending on how the Liberty-Rheinland war progresses, this one may have to be kept out of Liberty in a similar fashion to the Outcast one, and, if you ever intend to work for Rheinland, showing either in their space may harm your dealings.

The Kusari Explorer, being a GMG/Kusari ship, is not really appropriate for you, unless you have good relations with the GMG and can acquire a few from them.

The BDs could work too, but since they are supposed to be a smaller group there's the "hardly any surplus" issue.

The Kusari Explorer is a no go also (I had forgot). We're outlaws in Kusari space, so there's no way we can get our hands in that ship.

With the Hessians would be a very strange deal, and would only work if we worked for them against (again) the Corsairs. The RM job is under the table anyway and it doesn't (specifically) hurts them. We don't operate inside Rheinland space and I hardly ever see any Hessian (the ones that count anyway) fooling around in Sigma-13. It's a long shot, but it would be an interesting RP attempt.

We may have no other option but try and get it from the OCs. I didn't want to turn too much attention to us by becoming an unofficial Outcast subsidiary as it might hurt our standings elsewhere (e.g. we wouldn't be able to fly those ships in Liberty). That's the closest thing we've got.