BattleTech: The Com Guard - A Short History

Today we take a little journey through the history of the Com Guard, ComStar's military wing. I hope you enjoy it!

Channel memberships are go, so that's now the best way to help support the creation of this and other videos on the channel. Thank you!

#Battletech #CatalystGameLabs #Lore #SciFi #Comstar

[MadMax-elel]

My history with ComStar is actually my starting point with battletech.

I was invited to a birthday party, where the guys dad would paint a battletech mini for everyone so everyone could pilot a fully painted mech. Now, well over two decades later I would find out, i was not the person intended to be at that party, I was an emergency last minute replacement and 4th ot 5th on the list. Drunk friends are great at telling on themselves. Hilariously of the twelve people at that bday party only three of us still play.

So, by the time I got invited every single house, gray death legion and wolfs Dragoons were taken. My options were random mech, I think it was a battlemaster in periphery colors or a white comstar mech that no one couldrememberthe name of. No one in the 90s wanted to paint white, we had sh t acrylics. But i had experience with oil paints on minis, so i was all in on the white paint scheme. I showed up and got a Flashman painted white with blue glass and every laser port was red.

I never piloted my mech that day though. Because the person I had replaced made it to the party. So I joined his old man piloting smoke jaguar Clan mechs. We rolfstomped the IS scum into paste, as everything was "balanced" on tonage. We lost 3 mechs a Warhammer iic (it fell off a level 3 hill), a Hunchback iic (lucky headshot round 2) and a mad dog (that just got peppered into scrap).

But at the table in 92, I instantly became a smoke jaguar fan boy and com guard rep. Well, until the word of Blake caught my attention. I love a good religious nut job story and part of comstar always sat funny with me... ya you can have your nice happy white mechs, they look stunning... but who does the dirty work when you don't want to leave a message, just the results. So I have 90s metals as my comguard to this day. But my new plastics are all Word of Blake, aka a "merc company" with a lot of com guard mechs and configurations.

My Clan stuff from the 90s is all smoke jaguar, and smoke jaguar is a little to one note for me these days, but man i have a soft spot for them. Jade falcon just makes me roll my eyes and laugh, discount smoke jaguar with worse paint jobs and better PR. i have had an irrational hate for clan wolf since 94 when our birthday boy from 92 dunked on me so hard it make the 92 birthday massacre seem kind. yes i was playing my comguard but thier entire eight mech team took me off the table before firing at anything else, both of my mechs were scrapped before turn two ended. My new plastic clan stuff is all sea Fox, i wanted a painting challenge and the indo-pacific tattoo seemed like a wonderful challenge. Also, i mainly I just wanted to run secondary line mechs. Then justified it as sea Fox advertising tools for future sales, with only a Star or two of omnis in an alternative paint scheme for creating repeat customers. i also see sea fox becoming, "comstar 2.0", so yah i am there for that.

[CycKath]

Blessed is Blake. He guards the righteous and protects those who serve in his name.

[StrangeUncle]

Space AT&T apologizing for being a hypocritical corrupt monopoly resulted in space Joel Olsteen meets Goth phase times Ruby Ridge in 3052. Got it.

[TsugeSenpai]

It makes me so sad that they dissolved the com guard. They are my favorite faction. The small few who decided the inner sphere was worth trying to save, instead of abandoning. I think the ideals got lost along the way over time, but they still rose up when they were needed, conflict of interest aside. I don't see them as heroic, but I do see them as trying to do the right thing in their own weird, cult-like way. I love the idea that someone was behind the scenes making sure the other houses didn't get too big for their britches, as absolute power corrupts absolutely. Finally, and maybe mostly, they were a victim of the old adage in the end: no good deed goes unpunished. I'll miss them and I hope Catalyst brings them back.

[tuppytheducky]

was fun recording the words of the delusional war criminal for you! hope you guys enjoyed it

[phelanward]

Had a giggle thinking of the reaction to the possible title, “why we love Comstar”

[derekburge]

Once you peel back the memes, the Com Guards are one of the few forces that you could reasonably call *morally good enough.*

[Plix]

I picked ComStar because I liked that a Level II incorporates vehicles and infantry, while a lance was just mechs or vehicles. Plus painting white is rewarding.

And to bring my ComStar into the ilClan they are a mercenary company that found an old Com Guard stockpile and just named themselves ComStar.

[vana.johnson]

It is still a sad day that COM STAR is no longer a fictional character/Military force in the Battletech Universe. Yet just like the empire in. THE DUNE Universe, it suffered under its own weight and chicanery. LONG LIVE BLAKE and All who served in his Holy Name.

[kennethhummel]

Game over man!! We pissed off the phone company, they’re sending the phone cops after us!

[bushyboom]

Honestly i like and relate to secular comstar the most. A bit lost on what to do and who to be but always putting your boots on and try to do some good no matter how great the odds are.

[Mister_Brushface]

Allegedly, the blakest allegedly killed everyone.

[Fryepod]

5:26 😂 "So much for protecting technology right"
Very good point.

[WeOnlyEatSoup]

My favorite faction in the lore and the tabletop

[thomasrobson]

"Cannon" or not, the Explorer Corp lives on. And by default the Com Guard by the mechs/mechwarriors they employ. As the NEC grows, survives, thrives it will need to protect itself and its assets.

[Ironclockwork]

I understand that Comstar as a functioning entity is defunct, but I ain't gonna deny I loved having them exist as a counterpoint to the Clans in regards to both factions being twisted legacies of the Star League. Perhaps one day we will get more mainstream Battletech video games covering the ComGuard as a faction such as in Tukayyid. HBS Battletech and Mechwarrior 5 were more like shadowy glimpses of the ComGuard doing shady shenanigans.

[johnnythompson]

Hmm that's weird, I could of sworn all of the scientists were all still alive this morning.

[negawan]

Oh man youre going through everyone. Looking forward to other factions

[jjsheets]

I honestly wasn’t aware that some ComStar units had fled to the deep periphery. You learn something new every day.

[johanneskaramossov]

Nice to the point summary of their story. I personally choose Comguard as my tabletop faction because I wanted to play something with alot of freedoms of unit choice that prefers mixed units of not just mechs and i wont find players to play against with sldf because all my local players prefer clan invasion or succession war eras. Also i did want to play something from the Lore and not a custom merc company. Personally i imagine my comguard more the clandestine kind than the defenders of humanity that they became during their later existence.