We're House Liao

House Liao's current resurgence is as much to do with House Davions unfocused and demoralised play as it is to do with much improved coordination amongst the more numerous small CCAF units.

Dare I say it that House Liao has more active units on the House Davion front now than the FedRats? Yup, I have been in three Ghost-drops on their worlds where there were no House Davion mech units to defend their cities and infrastructure. This is in marked contrast in the early months of CW when we were outnumbered by House Davion 3-, 4-, 5-to-1 with us defending only about 1/5 of the attacks. The other 4/5ths would land on our planet(s), only to be opposed by static laser batteries and missile pods. House Davion would crow that it was down to the their skill and coordination but in reality it was down to the their numbers. Now, the situation, at least tactically has changed: House Liao has relative numerical supremacy (though I am sure that we are still one of the smallest groups around) due to all active units being, well active and coordinated.

However, we are in danger of letting the string of victories go to our heads. We have a ceasefire with Marik, that has held despite some false-flag operations and we are amicable with House Kurita and F.R.R. - to me, the real enemy are the Clans who are taking planets from the Draconis Combine, Lyran Commonwealth and the FRR.

What has made House Liao and the CCAF more competitive?

CCAF has one active, competitive and elite unit that regularly field 12-man units (a 'company' in MechWarrior parlance) and this is the famous Tikonov Commonality Armed Forces [TCAF] and they have been a bedrock of the CCAF through thick and thin. The next comparable units are either the House Liao Gatekeepers [HLGK] or the 4th Tau Ceti Rangers [4TCR] and both can field a company's worth of mechs (rarely) but usually I only see an augmented lance of these warriors. Other sub-company units include the Warrior Houses: Ma-Tsui-Ka [WHM] and Kamata [WHK]. There are pilots in both groups who I know and respect, having dropped with many of them prior to clan invasion.

The next group are the semi-regular CCAF units:

[PMP] - Always need our Pimps.
[LURM]
[SRAL]
[GDVC] - haven't seen these guys in an age and potentially, these could be as big as The Gatekeepers, The Rangers or even the TCAF as they have almost exclusively, pilots from SAR and China; a huge catchment area.
[FYSK]

The final group are the lone-wolf types who have no long-term unit affiliation. This is where the 'Green Machine' [LlAO] has been created to at least give these House Liao affiliated pilots a unit ticker if they so wished. Makes coordination a bit easier ingame too.

However, am absolutely sure the tide will turn against the CCAF and we will start to lose planets and I wonder what will happen to the high degree of coordination, morale and activity we're seeing right now? House Davion had the services of some very fine mercenary units and they formed the thrusting tip of the Federated Suns' spear into the heart of the Cappellan Confederation. They left for the clan front (or took money off the clans and fought against IS) but some of these mercs are now coming back, lured by money, fame and fights. They include Comstar Irregulars [CI] who have held Frazer successfully from repeated CCAF attacks over the last week - in fact, the CCAF attacks have now gone around Frazer, leaving it a pocket of House Davion instability inside a sea of green tranquility.

I dropped with a bunch of small CCAF units and while I have already praised the general utility of the smaller CCAF units: their ability to coordinate, work together and then largely succeed in securing a victory. Against a full company (or two) from one competitive and cohesive unit - the shortcomings of an ad-hoc team, as good as individuals/lances were, was shown in sharp relief. This CCAF invasion was completely smashed on arrival. The entire drop team of 48 mechs (essentially a mixed regiment) was blasted to scrap - scoring only a modest 6 enemy mech kills and some damaged gates.

Most of the top tier competitive units are Mercs and the CCAF will be facing them once more.

So, Frazer still is under the [CI] ticker and will probably remain so for the time being.

Meanwhile, up North [TCAF] continues to grab Davion planets and we recently landed and occupied the iconic world of Tsingtao. We then took Heligoland and currently assaulting Matsu. We are trying to drive northward and retake Planet Liao off the Davions. For those not following the maps, Planet Liao has changed hands between House Davion and House Marik at least twice in both directions.

However, the mercs are here and they are hungry.