I figured I'd pose this questions to my fellow Realmers, "Which faction should I vote off the island next?" I'm interested your views regarding collecting.

I've been playing since DFA came out and I've amassed a rather sizeable collection. If money were no object I'd collect all the factions, but it is. I've pretty much purged all my SW, SH, H, RotS. SW was kind of an easy choice for me. Even though I love the Clans (the whole reason I got into Battletech in the first place) I got fustrated trying to master the dials. SH was a bit tougher. They've got sevral great units, but I hardly ever play any of them except the Aesir and the ATVs. I dropped H because they lacked the attack and damage values I wanted (a little to defensive for my play style). RotS was hard for me to let go. So hard infact, I kept all my Knights ;) (they just look too cool and so much of the fiction revolves around them). I was really bummed when AoD was coming out and they announced H and RotS were to be allies going forward. These two factions paired offer a excellent choice of units. I wish sometimes I had held on to both those factions. Oh well.

That leaves me with SC, DF/HK, SS/HD, BR, HL, CJF.

I'll be honest. Based on the fiction, I've never liked house Liao and I don't like Bannson's Raiders. Sad part is, I have a blast playing their units.

I thought about letting SS/HD go. I love to play Mechs as my primary offensive weapon... and well... SS Mechs are really geared for supporting their awesome vehicles and infantry. The challenge of making myself play this way has been rewarding at times.

CJF, I'm not sure about. A true clan finally. They do have some very cool faction abilities. Seem like the opposite of H almost...All offense, little defense. I haven't mastered playing this way.

SC and DF/HK are largest collections I've got, my bread and butter. Once again, based on the fiction I'm not a great fan of HK. But these two factions are what I started with and I'm pretty good with them.

What do all y'all think?

Drop the Swordsworn like yer pants on prom night. Seriously though, the SS, as you said are more infantry with armored support armies than Mechwarriors. Even their leader is pretty weak when stacked against the other faction leaders.

Drop Swordsworn. SC and DF are, as you said "the bread and butter" of your collection. You really enjoy playing BR and HL, so keep them. That leaves SS and CJF. Since you like playing mechs, my vote is to keep CJF, as I think their mechs are more fun to play due to the heat dials and their speed.

I would hold off on dumping SS/HD at the moment. Supposedly, HD is going to arrive in force in Firepower, so it is too early to say how that might affect the mech selections for the faction. If the spoiler list is correct, HD alone is getting two nonunique assault mechs in the next set (supposedly a Zeus and a Hellstar). It is simply too early to assume that SS aren't going to have competitive mechs. As for our faction leader, I would gladly take Sandoval and Crusader into battle any day. Slap agility on him and he is a monster of a mech for the cost. 11 AV 11 MV with evade 22 DV/24 DV against ranged attacks. He has antipersonnel with a 16" range on an AO and he has 3 damage on his melee weapon primary with full strike late in the dial. Further, his special ability is uniquely useful in that it allows you to put an order token on any unit with a successful melee attack. Additionally, if a vehicle or infantry already has one order token, then a successful melee attack lets him add a second token to them, effectively neutralizing them the next turn. Most of our non mechs before AOD weren't that great, but the Thunderfox from AOD is quite solid. All I am saying is, don't sell SS short simply because it seems like our mechs aren't that great. I think that paradigm is chaning with AOD and into the future.

Ditch SS/HD

Personally you should have kept your Highlander / RoTS. With the merger of the two units, their effectivness has increased at least for me they did. And when House Davion comes into the picture you can almost count on a Situational Alliance between the three.

I agree with you on Bannson's Raiders / House Liao. I do not care for them in the stories because they have others do their dirty work for them. Not to say that the other house leaders did not do it either, but at least on more than one occasion the other house leaders climbed into a mech a took care of business. But keep them as part of your collection. Jacob Bannson's Cygnus is a monster when working in concert with any Liao unit with the exception of Flavio, (he does not even work well with himself) :p

Clan Jade Falcon. No doubt about it, keep them, build them up!
I am still learning Dragons Fury. I have a large collection but I hardly use them.

Spirit Cats.....Keep them. When Clan Nova Cat makes their entrance they will be even more useful. :grin:

I ended up ditching SW, SH, H, most of my RotS (except the Knights), and much of my DF, Liao and BR that were retiring anyway. Since AOD came around I have started playing SC and SSw/HD (though not their mechs for SSw) and I still have some opf my DF figures left for when Firepower and House Kurita come out.I would have to say drop either the Jade Falcons, since you haven't mastered them yet anyway or drop SSw/HD. I would keep your DF and SC since they seem to be what you have the most of, though I do understand what you are talking about with Bannson's and House Liao. I love some of their figures too and have a few on hand for occasional play or to put in a Situational Alliance.

with what youve said id keep the spirit cats if i were you you enjoy clans and have quite a few of them and theyve got fun playable mechs declan and maria devalis for example

Keep your Bannson's Raiders. BR is unique in that it does not have a link to the older Battletech fluff. Bannson's is uniquly a piece of this game and I doubt that they will ever get rid of them.

If I were you I would pick two sets of factions. ie HL/Rots and clans except falcon because they are now _ _ _ _ _ _ _ children of what they use to be, an honorable and traditional clan. But I would keep your SC/DF as each will be phased out into there parent or absorbed into another clan. Other then that I might if I were you just start keeping a few pieces here and there of the AOD stuff and then the Firepower stuff and then making a choice as to where your tastes and paradigm way of thought will lead you..

On a side note I must say that H/ROTS is a perfect coupling of form and function. Rots units have generally higher AV and better then average DV so they from core units grouping and with the use of H's excellent infantry and supportive vech. and mech paradigm leans you have a match in heaven when you put them together as they should fit. The other houses and clans that merge/absorb will also probably follow this balancing and covering each other effect. SO I might honestly hold out for a month or so till we see the way things are going to lay out for the future. thanks for listening to my rant lol !

Based on what you've said about your remaining factions, I'm not sure I'd dump
any more of them until Firepower releases. Remember, you dumped H and ROTS
and are now kicking yourself for it. ;)