History Awesome / BattleTech

* The last stand of 195st Royal BattleMech Division, AKA: The Blackwatch. Woken up by alarms triggered when First Lord Richard Cameron was assassinated and with nukes dropping on their base, the Blackwatch still nearly managed to stop the Amaris Civil War before it started. Blackwatch marines stormed the palace and got so close to killing Stefan Amaris that he had nightmares about it for the rest of his life. The TWO remaining lances of Blackwatch MechWarriors held off the entirety of the Amaris 4th Dragoons for so long and at such a heavy cost to the latter that the Amaris forces ultimately had to surround the Blackwatch and pin them down long enough to zero in a SECOND nuclear attack, sacrificing even more of their own elite troops to get the job done. Even after all that, five members of the Blackwatch still survived to carry out a campaign of guerilla warfare against the Amaris Empire for the rest of the civil war.

* The end of the ''Heavy Metal'' mini-campaign allows your scrappy team of mercenaries to pick a fight with [[spoiler:the command lance of Black Widow Company [[note]]Lynn Sheridan has an ''Archer'' instead her canonical ''Crusader'' and John Hayes is in an ''Annihilator'' instead of his ''Griffin'', but still[[/note]] ''and'' The Bounty Hunter with Associates -- ''at the same time'']]. Granted, it's a bit undercut by the fact that [[EnemyCivilWar they'll mostly attack each other due to a mutual blood feud]], but it's still a really cool setting for a BonusBoss for fans of the tabletop game.

** There were even ulterior plans in place to seed sleeper agents in the Clans; several ROM agents were tasked with being deliberately captured and declared Bondsmen during the battle so they can infiltrate the Clans and find the Exodus Road, the route to the Clan Homeworlds. One such agent, Judith Faber, ended up the bondsman of Trent, a Smoke Jaguar warrior who was perennially screwed out of his due by dishonorable backstabbing politics. The two would eventually become the catalysts of the clan's obliteration at the hands of the combined might of the Inner Sphere, and the Great Refusal that repudiated the whole invasion. All yet another strategic nuance to Focht's plan for the Battle of Tukayyid.

* The Battle of Tukayyid. [=ilKhan=] Ulric Kerensky "accidentally" lets slip to [=ComStar=] Primus Myndo Waterly and Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht that the Clans' ultimate goal is to conquer Terra and reform the Star League. [=ComStar=] is based on Terra and has their own ambitions of being at the head of a reformed Star League. Waterly authorizes Focht to come up with a plan to stop the Clans. It should be noted that, since the invasion started, [=ComStar=] has been working closely with the Clans to administer their conquered populations, and Focht himself has been among the Clans for almost the whole invasion, at Ulric's side and learning how the Clans prepare for and engage in battle. So when Focht issues a challenge to the Clans for a proxy battle to decide the fate of Terra on the planet of Tukayyid, the Clans are surprised but agree, and Ulric as [=ilKhan=] negotiates the terms of the battle. If [=ComStar=] wins, the Clans advance no deeper into the Inner Sphere than the world of Tukayyid for fifteen years. If the Clans win, [=ComStar=] cedes Terra to their control. Focht announces his intention to defend Tukayyid with '''twelve armies''' of [=ComGuards=], inexperienced but highly trained troops with access to Star League era technology. Seeing what [=ComStar=] is prepared to bring to the field, Ulric advises the other Clans to prepare for a long, drawn out, total warfare campaign. The Clans ignore him, considering Focht and his forces little more than glorified technicians. But Ulric knows something they don't. Focht's MysteriousPast rasied a flag for Ulric, who asked Phelan to look into it, and Phelan came to the conclusion that Focht had once been Frederick Steiner, one of the finest military minds of the otherwise-rather-inept Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces. And Focht put all his considerable military experience and knowledge into breaking the Clan invasion over his knee. He prepared a defense-in-depth at Tukayyid, hitting the Clans mercilessly with hit-and-run attacks. Knowing many Clan [=OmniMech=] loadouts (and many Clan warriors) favored ammunition-heavy loadouts for quick, decisive battles, he goaded them into overextending their supply lines and squandering their ammunition, then raided their supply lines and depots. He hammered them with artillery, strafed them with [=AeroSpace=] fighters, ambushed them before fading away, and threw everything the [=ComGuards=] had at the Clans. Because of their bidding for the "honor" of drop order, the Clans hampered themselves with minimal forces, and the staggered drops of Clan forces meant that Focht could redeploy forces that would have otherwise been occupied because they'd already driven their Clan off Tukayyid. It was a meatgrinder that gutted the Clans and [=ComGuards=] almost equally; the Clans estimated total losses were 40% absolute, and far more so badly mangled it wasn't even good for scrap. Clans Smoke Jaguar, Nova Cat, and Diamond Shark lost effectively or actually ''their entire deployed force''. Clan Wolf was the only Clan to attain a victory, and that still came at the cost of one of their Khans, and it wasn't enough to keep the truce from going into effect. [=ComStar=] stopped the Clan advance cold and introduced the Clans to the horror of total warfare. And the best part? The whole thing played out exactly as Ulric wanted. This blow sent the Clans reeling for years, and while there were attempts to repudiate the truce and restart the invasion, the Clan war machine had been so badly mauled Ulric was able to stall them. Tukayyid set the stage for Operation: Bulldog and Task Force Serpent, which would culminate in the Great Refusal that effectively ended the threat of Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere for good. Not bad for a jumped-up telecom company CargoCult.

* Say what you will about Nicholas Kerensky, but his reforming of the Star League Defense Force into the Clans is an extended moment of awesome. First, with his twenty original Clans composed of just forty warriors each, he ends the Pentagon Civil War. Then, Nicholas continued to press societal reforms to bring his envisioned utopia about, and somehow got most everyone else on board with this program. There were dissenters, of course, but on the whole, the nascent Clans ate Nicholas' vision up with spoons. Perhaps most amazingly, despite his personal charisma and cult of personality being the primary means by which he exerted influence and control, the society he built was stable and adaptable enough to survive his death, the return to the Inner Sphere, and all the chaos and war that followed. While Nicholas Kerensky would probably be disgusted with what some Clans ultimately became his legacy is in zero danger of dying out completely.
* The War of 3039. Hanse Davion tried the same blitzkrieg attacks that gutted the Capellan Confederation in the Fourth Succession War on the Draconis Combine. Theodore Kurita answers with newly-mustered 'Mech units not bound by the HonorBeforeReason mentality that hampered the Combine previously, bogging down Hanse's offensive ''and'' counterattacking into Davion space. Shocked at this sudden reversal, Hanse backed down and the war ended inconclusively. The best part? ''Theodore was bluffing.'' The units he deployed were the only ones he had interested in following his reforms, and Hanse could have thrown a few more [=RCTs=] at the problem, crushed Theodore's new guard, then waltzed all the way to Luthien. Theodore admits as much to Hanse's face during the Outreach Summit, Hanse is [[WorthyOpponent impressed]] and [[ActuallyPrettyFunny amused]].

** In the Federated Commonwealth, a Young Officer's Group lead by Victor Davion brainstorms ideas to deal with the Clans. Realizing the concept of a "front" in a space war is an illusion, Victor reasons that attempting to guess which worlds the Clans will hit next is a fool's gamble, and if you want to fight the Clans you have go where you know you'll find them: the worlds they've already taken. Victor picks Twycross because its inhospitable terrain and large dust storms will bring the fight into the close-in brawl the Inner Sphere warriors are best at, negating the Clans' range advantage. Even when a Front-Line Cluster turns out to have been grounded by the storm and ready to join the fight, Kai Allard-Liao singlehanded eliminates the entire Cluster by touching off a prepared booby trap. The salvage from this battle would benefit the [=FedCom=] for years to come.

* Say what you will about Nicholas Kerensky (and recent revelations from "Operation: KLONDIKE" and ''Betrayal of Ideals'' do much to tarnish his image as a visionary leader), but his reforming of the Star League Defense Force into the Clans is an extended moment of awesome. First, with his twenty original Clans composed of just forty warriors each, he ends the Pentagon Civil War (and remember, that was being fought by SLDF veterans just as battle-hardened as the warriors who formed the Clans). Then, Nicholas continued to press societal reforms to bring his envisioned utopia about, and somehow got most everyone else on board with this program. There were dissenters, of course (most notably Clan Wolverine), but on the whole the nascent Clans ate Nicholas' vision up with spoons. Perhaps most amazingly, despite his personal charisma and cult of personality being the primary means by which he exerted influence and control, the society he built was stable and adaptable enough to survive his death, the return to the Inner Sphere, and all the chaos and war that followed. While Nicholas Kerensky would probably be disgusted with what some Clans ultimately became (especially his own Wolves), his legacy is in zero danger of dying out completely.
* The War of 3039. Hanse Davion tried the same blitzkrieg attacks that gutted the Capellan Confederation in the Fourth Succession War on the Draconis Combine. Theodore Kurita answers with newly-mustered 'Mech units not bound by the HonorBeforeReason mentality that hampered the Combine previously, bogging down Hanse's offensive ''and'' counterattacking into Davion space. Shocked at this sudden reversal, Hanse backed down and the war ended inconclusively. The best part? ''Theodore was bluffing.'' The units he deployed were the only ones he had interested in following his reforms (or even, really, his orders), and Hanse could have thrown a few more [=RCTs=] at the problem, crushed Theodore's new guard, then waltzed all the way to Luthien. Theodore admits as much to Hanse's face during the Outreach Summit, Hanse is [[WorthyOpponent impressed]] and [[ActuallyPrettyFunny amused]].

** In the Federated Commonwealth, a Young Officer's Group lead by Victor Davion brainstorms ideas to deal with the Clans. Realizing the concept of a "front" in a space war is an illusion, Victor reasons that attempting to guess which worlds the Clans will hit next is a fool's gamble, and if you want to fight the Clans you have go where you know you'll find them: the worlds they've already taken. Victor picks Twycross because its inhospitable terrain and large dust storms will bring the fight into the close-in brawl the Inner Sphere warriors are best at, negating the Clans' range advantage. Even when a Front-Line Cluster (the Falcon Guards, one of Clan Jade Falcon's most elite units) turns out to have been grounded by the storm and ready to join the fight, Kai Allard-Liao singlehanded eliminates the entire Cluster by touching off a prepared booby trap. The salvage from this battle would benefit the [=FedCom=] for years to come.

** And last but the exact opposite of least, in the Free Rasalhague Republic, the fleeing Elected Prince and his personal guard stumble on the Clan Wolf flagship, carrying [=ilKhan=] Leo Showers. Scrambling against what they think is an ambush, the plucky Rasalhagians put up one hell of a fight, sorely outmatched by all the firepower Clan Wolf has at their disposal but desperately fighting for the sake of their sovereign. During the battle, [[https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Tyra_Miraborg Tyra Miraborg's]] ''Shilone'' [=AeroSpace=] fighter is crippled. Disengaging her thrust safeties, she slams the 65-ton fighter into the bridge of the ''Dire Wolf''. [=ilKhan=] Leo Showers is ejected into space, and Wolf Khan Ulric Kerensky is nearly killed, and the invasion grinds to a screeching halt as the Clans now have to regroup, elect a new [=ilKhan=], and even really reflect on if this invasion was such a good idea. This buys the Inner Sphere near a year off to rest, rearm, shift troop deployments, and at least try to unite against this strange new threat. It's not a stretch to say that if not for Tyra Miraborg's sacrifice, the Invasion ultimately may have gone far worse for the Inner Sphere. The Clans themselves greatly respected Tyra's Hail Mary play by adding her to their Rememberance verses, immortalizing her in their lore for her daring sacrifice. They also named a [[https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Miraborg DropShip class after her.]]

** And last but the exact opposite of least, in the Free Rasalhague Republic, the fleeing First Prince and his personal guard stumble on the Clan Wolf flagship, carrying [=ilKhan=] Leo Showers. Scrambling against what they think is an ambush, the plucky Rasalhagians put up one hell of a fight, sorely outmatched by all the firepower Clan Wolf has at their disposal but desperately fighting for the sake of their sovereign. During the battle, [[https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Tyra_Miraborg Tyra Miraborg's]] ''Shilone'' [=AeroSpace=] fighter is crippled. Disengaging her thrust safeties, she slams the 65-ton fighter into the bridge of the ''Dire Wolf''. [=ilKhan=] Leo Showers is ejected into space, and Wolf Khan Ulric Kerensky is nearly killed, and the invasion grinds to a screeching halt as the Clans now have to regroup, elect a new [=ilKhan=], and even really reflect on if this invasion was such a good idea. This buys the Inner Sphere near a year off to rest, rearm, shift troop deployments, and at least try to unite against this strange new threat. It's not a stretch to say that if not for Tyra Miraborg's sacrifice, the Invasion ultimately may have gone far worse for the Inner Sphere. The Clans themselves greatly respected Tyra's Hail Mary play by adding her to their Rememberance verses, immortalizing her in their lore for her daring sacrifice. They also named a [[https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Miraborg DropShip class after her.]]

Through the Dire Wolf, claiming as'' isorla\\

''Our mighty ilKhan's life. Sing of our loss, warriors!
Sing, but of Tyra also,

** And last but the exact opposite of least, in the Free Rasalhague Republic, the fleeing First Prince and his personal guard stumble on the Clan Wolf flagship, carrying [=ilKhan=] Leo Showers. Scrambling against what they think is an ambush, the plucky Rasalhagians put up one hell of a fight, sorely outmatched by all the firepower Clan Wolf has at their disposal but desperately fighting for the sake of their sovereign. During the battle, Tyra Miraborg's ''Shilone'' [=AeroSpace=] fighter is crippled. Disengaging her thrust safeties, she slams the 65-ton fighter into the bridge of the ''Dire Wolf''. [=ilKhan=] Leo Showers is ejected into space, and Wolf Khan Ulric Kerensky is nearly killed, and the invasion grinds to a screeching halt as the Clans now have to regroup, elect a new [=ilKhan=], and even really reflect on if this invasion was such a good idea. This buys the Inner Sphere near a year off to rest, rearm, shift troop deployments, and at least try to unite against this strange new threat. It's not a stretch to say that if not for Tyra Miraborg's sacrifice, the Invasion ultimately may have gone far worse for the Inner Sphere. The Clans themselves greatly respected Tyra's Hail Mary play by adding her to their Rememberance verses, immortalizing her in their lore for her daring sacrifice.

** And last but the exact opposite of least, in the Free Rasalhague Republic, the fleeing First Prince and his personal guard stumble on the Clan Wolf flagship, carrying [=ilKhan=] Leo Showers. Scrambling against what they think is an ambush, the plucky Rasalhagians put up one hell of a fight, sorely outmatched by all the firepower Clan Wolf has at their disposal but desperately fighting for the sake of their sovereign. During the battle, Tyra Miraborg's ''Shilone'' [=AeroSpace=] fighter is crippled. Disengaging her thrust safeties, she slams the 65-ton fighter into the bridge of the ''Dire Wolf''. [=ilKhan=] Leo Showers is ejected into space, and Wolf Khan Ulric Kerensky is nearly killed, and the invasion grinds to a screeching halt as the Clans now have to regroup, elect a new [=ilKhan=], and even really reflect on if this invasion was such a good idea. This buys the Inner Sphere near a year off to rest, rearm, shift troop deployments, and at least try to unite against this strange new threat. It's not a stretch to say that if not for Tyra Miraborg's sacrifice, the Invasion ultimately may have gone far worse for the Inner Sphere.

* Say what you will about Nicholas Kerensky (and recent revelations from "Operation: KLONDIKE" and ''Betrayal of Ideals'' do much to tarnish his image as a visionary leader), but his reforming of the Star League Defense Force into the Clans is an extended moment of awesome. First, with his twenty original Clans composed of just forty warriors each, he ends the Pentagon Civil War (and remember, that was being fought by SLDF veterans just as battle-hardened as the warriors who formed the Clans). Then, Nicholas continued to press societal reforms to bring his envisioned utopia about, and somehow got most everyone else on board with this program. There were dissenters, of course (most notably Clan Wolverine), on the whole the nascent Clans ate Nicholas' vision up with spoons. Perhaps most amazingly, despite his personal charisma and cult of personality being the primary means by which he exerted influence and control, the society he built was stable and adaptable enough to survive his death, the return to the Inner Sphere, and all the chaos and war that followed. While Nicholas Kerensky would probably be disgusted with what some Clans ultimately became (especially his own Wolves), his legacy is in zero danger of dying out completely.

* The War of 3039. Hanse Davion tried the same blitzkrieg attacks that gutted the Capellan Confederation in the Fourth Succession War on the Draconis Combine. Theodore Kurita answers with newly-mustered 'Mech units not bound by the HonorBeforeReason mentality that hampered the Combine previously, bogging down Hanse's offensive ''and'' counterattacking into Davion space. Shocked at this sudden reversal, Hanse backed down and the war ended inconclusively. The best part? ''Theodore was bluffing.'' The units he deployed were the only ones he had interested in following his reforms (or even, really, his orders), and Hanse could have thrown a few more [=RCTs=] at the problem, crushed Theodore's new guard, then waltzed all the way to Luthien. Theodore admits as much to Hanse's face during the Outreach Summit, Hanse is impressed and amused.

* The War of 3039. Hanse Davion tried the same blitzkrieg attacks that gutted the Capellan Confederation in the Fourth Succession War on the Draconis Combine. Theodore Kurita answers with newly-mustered 'Mech units not bound by the HonorBeforeReason mentality that hampered the Combine previously, bogging down Hanse's offensive ''and'' counterattack into Davion space. Shocked at this sudden reversal, Hanse backed down and the war ended inconclusively. The best part? ''Theodore was bluffing.'' The units he deployed were the only ones he had interested in following his reforms (or even, really, his orders), and Hanse could have thrown a few more [=RCTs=] at the problem, crushed Theodore's new guard, then waltzed all the way to Luthien. Theodore admits as much to Hanse's face during the Outreach Summit, Hanse is impressed and amused.

* Say what you will about Nicholas Kerensky (and recent revelations from "Operation: KLONDIKE" and ''Betrayal of Ideals'' do much to tarnish his image as a visionary leader), but his reforming of the Star League Defense Force into the Clans is an extended moment of awesome. First, with his twenty original Clans composed of just forty warriors each, he ends the Pentagon Civil War (and remember, that was being fought by SLDF veterans just as battle-hardened as the warriors who formed the Clans). Then, Nicholas continued to press societal reforms bring his envisioned utopia about, and somehow got most everyone else on board with his vision. There were dissenters, of course (most notably Clan Wolverine), on the whole the nascent Clans ate Nicholas' vision up with spoons. Perhaps most amazingly, despite his personal charisma and cult of personality being the primary means by which he exerted influence and control, the society he built was stable and adaptable enough to survive his death, the return to the Inner Sphere, and all the chaos and war that followed. While Nicholas Kerensky would probably be disgusted with what some Clans ultimately became (especially his own Wolves), his legacy is in zero danger of dying out completely.

* A meta-example is how Hairbrained Schemes managed to condense the rise and fall of the Star League into an intro cinematic less than 2 minutes long.

* The end of the ''Heavy Metal'' mini-campaign allows your scrappy team of mercenaries to pick a fight with [[spoiler:the command lance of Black Widow Company [[note]]Lynn Sheridan has an ''Archer'' instead her canonical ''Crusader'' and John Hayes is in an ''Annihilator'' instead of his ''Griffin'', but still[[/note]] ''and'' The Bounty Hunter with Associates -- ''at the same time'']]. Granted, it's a bit undercut by the fact that [[EnemyCivilWar they'll mostly attack each other due to a mutual blood feud]], but it's still a really cool setting for a BonusBoss for fans of the tabletop game.

* From the AnimatedAdaptation. There's something undeniably awesome about Adam Steiner having his 'mech destroyed in the duel in the last episode, ''and still winning''.

* Battletech's campaign allows you to make your own little mark on the history of the setting as hired mercenaries for Kamea Arano's Restoration movement. Running a small, elite unit with access to Star League technology, the player not only turns the tide of the war, but destroys a fortress-class Dropship and its accompanying army.

* The Battle of Tukayyid. [=ilKhan=] Ulric Kerensky "accidentally" lets slip to [=ComStar=] Primus Myndo Waterly and Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht that the Clans' ultimate goal is to conquer Terra and reform the Star League. [=ComStar=] is based on Terra and has their own ambitions of being at the head of a reformed Star League. Waterly authorizes Focht to come up with a plan to stop the Clans. It should be noted that, since the invasion started, [=ComStar=] has been working closely with the Clans to administer their conquered populations, and Focht himself has been among the Clans for almost the whole invasion, at Ulric's side and learning how the Clans prepare for and engage in battle. So when Focht issues a challenge to the Clans for a proxy battle to decide the fate of Terra on the planet of Tukayyid, the Clans are surprised but agree, and Ulric as [=ilKhan=] negotiates the terms of the battle. If [=ComStar=] wins, the Clans advance no deeper into the Inner Sphere than the world of Tukayyid for fifteen years. If the Clans win, [=ComStar=] cedes Terra to their control. Focht announces his intention to defend Tukayyid with '''twelve armies''' of [=ComGuards=], inexperienced but highly trained troops with access to Star League era technology. Seeing what [=ComStar=] is prepared to bring to the field, Ulric advises the other Clans to prepare for a long, drawn out, total warfare campaign. The Clans ignore him, considering Focht and his forces little more than glorified technicians. But Ulric knows something they don't. Focht's MysteriousPast rasied a flag for Ulric, who asked Phelan to look into it, and Phelan came to the conclusion that Focht had once been Frederick Steiner, one of the finest military minds of the otherwise-rather-inept Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces. And Focht put all his considerable military experience and knowledge into breaking the Clan invasion over his knee. He prepared a defense-in-depth at Tukayyid, hitting the Clans mercilessly with hit-and-run attacks. Knowing many Clan [=OmniMech=] loadouts (and many Clan warriors) favored ammunition-heavy loadouts for quick, decisive battles, he goaded them into overextending their supply lines and squandering their ammunition, then raided their supply lines and depots. He hammered them with artillery, strafed them with [=AeroSpace=] fighters, ambushed them before fading away, and threw everything the [=ComGuards=] had at the Clans. Because of their bidding for the "honor" of drop order, the Clans hampered themselves with minimal forces, and the staggered drops of Clan forces meant that Focht could redeploy forces that would have otherwise been occupied because they'd already driven their Clan off Tukayyid. It was a meatgrinder that gutted the Clans and [=ComGuards=] almost equally; the Clans estimated total losses were 40% absolute, and far more so badly mangled it wasn't even good for scrap. Clans Smoke Jaguar, Nova Cat, and Diamond Shark lost effectively or actually ''their entire deployed force''. Clan Wolf was the only Clan to attain a victory, and that still came at the cost of one of their Khans, and it wasn't enough to keep the truce from going into effect. [=ComStar=] stopped the Clan advance cold and introduced the Clans to the horror of total warfare. And the best part? The whole thing played out exactly as Ulric wanted. This blow sent the Clans reeling for years, and while there were attempts to repudiate the truce and restart the invasion, the Clan war machine had been so badly mauled Ulric was able to stall them. Tukayyid set the stage for Operation: Bulldog and Task Force Serpent, which would culminate in the Great Refusal that effectively ended the threat of Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere for good. Not bad for a jumped-up telecom company CargoCult.

* The Battle of Tukayyid. [=ilKhan=] Ulric Kerensky "accidentally" lets slip to [=ComStar=] Primus Myndo Waterly and Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht that the Clans' ultimate goal is to conquer Terra and reform the Star League. [=ComStar=] is based on Terra and has their own ambitions of being at the head of a reformed Star League. Waterly authorizes Focht to come up with a plan to stop the Clans. It should be noted that, since the invasion started, [=ComStar=] has been working closely with the Clans to administer their conquered populations, and Focht himself has been among the Clans for almost the whole invasion, at Ulric's side and learning how the Clans prepare for and engage in battle. So when Focht issues a challenge to the Clans for a proxy battle to decide the fate of Terra on the planet of Tukayyid, the Clans are surprised but agree, and Ulric as [=ilKhan=] negotiates the terms of the battle. If [=ComStar=] wins, the Clans advance no deeper into the Inner Sphere than the world of Tukayyid for fifteen years. If the Clans win, [=ComStar=] cedes Terra to their control. Focht announces his intention to defend Tukayyid with '''twelve armies''' of [=ComGuards=], inexperienced but highly trained troops with access to Star League era technology. Seeing what [=ComStar=] is prepared to bring to the field, Ulric advises the other Clans to prepare for along, drawn out, total warfare campaign. The Clans ignore him, considering Focht and his forces little more than glorified technicians. But Ulric knows something they don't. Focht's MysteriousPast rasied a flag for Ulric, who asked Phelan to look into it, and Phelan came to the conclusion that Focht had once been Frederick Steiner, one of the finest military minds of the otherwise-rather-inept Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces. And Focht put all his considerable military experience and knowledge into breaking the Clan invasion over his knee. He prepared a defense-in-depth at Tukayyid, hitting the Clans mercilessly with hit-and-run attacks. Knowing many Clan [=OmniMech=] loadouts (and many Clan warriors) favored ammunition-heavy loadouts for quick, decisive battles, he goaded them into overextending their supply lines and squandering their ammunition, then raided their supply lines and depots. He hammered them with artillery, strafed them with [=AeroSpace=] fighters, ambushed them before fading away, and threw everything the [=ComGuards=] had at the Clans. Because of their bidding for the "honor" of drop order, the Clans hampered themselves with minimal forces, and the staggered drops of Clan forces meant that Focht could redeploy forces that would have otherwise been occupied because they'd already driven their Clan off Tukayyid. It was a meatgrinder that gutted the Clans and [=ComGuards=] almost equally; the Clans estimated total losses were 40% absolute, and far more so badly mangled it wasn't even good for scrap. Clans Smoke Jaguar, Nova Cat, and Diamond Shark lost effectively or actually ''their entire deployed force''. Clan Wolf was the only Clan to attain a victory, and that still came at the cost of one of their Khans, and it wasn't enough to keep the truce from going into effect. [=ComStar=] stopped the Clan advance cold and introduced the Clans to the horror of total warfare. And the best part? The whole thing played out exactly as Ulric wanted. This blow sent the Clans reeling for years, and while there were attempts to repudiate the truce and restart the invasion, the Clan war machine had been so badly mauled Ulric was able to stall them. Tukayyid set the stage for Operation: Bulldog and Task Force Serpent, which would culminate in the Great Refusal that effectively ended the threat of Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere for good. Not bad for a jumped-up telecom company CargoCult.