P1e clusters most of its example kingdoms around shipyards. The Taurians, Canopians and Outworlders each have their own; the "March Worlds" (Marians, Lothians, etc.) have a small one on Illyria; and Oberon et al have Star's End. So if we're looking for the largest, most stable kingdoms not already listed, I would look near shipyards and away from big pirate kingdoms. The area between Taurus and Canopus would be ideal if not for the beating it took from Kerensky.
Before anything else I want to acknowledge how perfect that swath of Taurian worlds is. P1e mentions that the Taurians have an unknown number of colonies beyond the 31 stars labeled on its map; I determined a while ago that they controlled 49 stars in all, and this map from Harebrained Schemes repeats 19 stars from P1e's map and then adds 11 more recognized in later books. They got the ratio exactly right.
That said, the map does have a few problems. Some are minor - Girondas being on the Concordat's edge instead of deeper in its interior, for instance, or a few worlds using names from 3145 instead of 2765.
The big problem is how the Aurigans are labeled. From the game's intro:
The Aurigan Reach is a small kingdom in the Rimward Periphery...It is home to the Aurigan Coalition, a federation organized around a parliamentary monarchy and ruled by the Arano family.The Aurigan "Reach" isn't labeled on this map and what they mean by calling it a "kingdom" isn't clear. The posted history says the Coalition started with only four worlds - Coromodir, Itrom, Tyrlon and Guldra - then acquired Mechdur and expanded into former Capellan holdings. This appears to describe the nine worlds highlighted in the orange zone. By 3020 they're trying to annex "several border worlds, most particularly Qalzi," and being stymmied by Taurian red tape; these other worlds of the orange zone are marked the same as the worlds of any other state. Perhaps the Coalition doesn't actually control them.
Trying to expand from nine worlds to twenty-three (becoming the fourth largest state in the Periphery, nearly as large as the next three biggest states combined) may be what causes the Aurigan Coalition to erupt in civil war.
How Many 'Mechs
Supposing 55k 'Mechs in all of known space, minus 385 Successor State regiments (of 128 'Mechs each) and 25-ish regiments of known Periphery forces; and subtracting the 183 known stars from last week's estimate of 535 for the Periphery; then I might expect to find almost four regiments of 'Mechs among the 23 orange and 45 unclaimed stars on HBS' map. If the Aurigan Coalition has only 9 of the orange worlds, then they'd have just over 1 regiment to themselves, leaving an average of 5.8 BattleMechs on each of those other 59 worlds.
Obviously, the number and distribution of those non-Aurigan 'Mechs is a bit rough, but it sounds about right for what I encountered in the game.
About ten more 'Mechs should trickle in per regiment per year, keeping the mix of weights and 'Mech types about the same as in the Inner Sphere.
The Future of Auriga
If we count the Directorate and the Restoration as two separate nations, I suppose it's possible that their combined holdings during the civil war could have approached the orange zone's full count of twenty-three. It's unlikely that either of them ever rose substantially higher than ten; P1e poses the Marians, Circinians and Oberons as the most mature of the junior nations circa 3025, and it wouldn't have ignored a nation two or three times their size collapsing amidst those same years.
It could ignore a remnant as big seven worlds, though. I don't know how much damage the Coalition took, but attrition in the video games is always higher than in the actual universe, and it's certainly possible they retained as much as two battalions of 'Mechs at the close of the war.
I don't yet know where later years set the bar for being marked on the maps. It's conceivable the Aurigans would grow back.
The Argo
I love that the player goes from lance battle to lance battle in a huge colony ship that utterly dwarfs any other civilian shipping in the area. Whether you win or lose Kamea's war, the real prize is a trade cartel with the Argo at its heart. Keep the mercs on as the security force so they can carry Aurigan colors into whatever Inner Sphere conflicts the players want.
If there's anything wrong with the Argo, it's that it's hilariously big. It could do everything you see in the game at a tenth its size. I'm sympathetic to it (if you're building a Star League colony ship, then go big), but it's a rough fit for 3025. The grav decks and parasite collars are inconsequential in comparison - the construction rules have no reason to bar DropShips from mounting grav decks, and the parasite craft are no more a problem than the parasite craft on any other DropShip, they just need higher capacity docking bays.
The ship was ostensibly designed to support surveys and terraforming, and yet:
There's machines hidden in the walls, under the floor panels - I don't even know what half of it does. But I turned one on and it built a 'Mech leg before I was able to shut it off. We make these work, we'll be moving 'Mechs out of repair in record time.Was this a secret Amaris assembly site to support the Periphery Uprising? A mobile factory lost by the Minnesota Tribe? I can't tell if it just does final assembly of pre-stocked parts or if it also newly machines and manufactures widgets; and I can't tell if it's limited to a preset program or if it can dynamically adjust to unspecified 'Mechs and parts.
The technologically simpler version isn't particularly special, aside from the tools being concealed in the decking, whereas the high-tech version is definitely something ComStar would want to keep out of state hands. ComStar isn't actually as good at that as a lot of players seem to think - the Taurians found and exploited a vast storehouse and source of scientific knowledge on Celeano in the early 3000s (P1e p85, TR:3058 Maultier) and Canopus' expansion during this period was supplied from "somewhere beyond the Periphery" (MW1e p137), possibly the caches found on Cate's Hold (P1e p104). ComStar is loathe to act directly, in any case; they're more likely to use someone else, such as the player unit, as a catspaw.
The Rimward Frontier
I haven't looked at HBS' planetary guide to know if all the unclaimed worlds here are inhabited. Kerensky beat the area pretty thoroughly during the Periphery Uprising, so populations probably crashed; when P2e introduces the New Colony Region, it does so with a journal which mentions ruined cities of the past, so remnant populations are a possibility on any given world, if not a certainty. In the event of discrepancies between HBS' planetary data and CGL publications, I suspect most problems can be resolved by remembering a good fraction of all named systems have more than one inhabited (or inhabitable) worlds.
It's kind of funny that the Aurigan "Reach" is in this area, since in geographic terms, a "reach" is generally a relatively placid stretch of a larger topographic feature, and the rimward Periphery isn't particularly placid. The Successor State books gloss over the area, but the Taurian and Canopian regimental descriptions are as active as those of the Great Houses, with all parties in the region seeing action throughout the last two decades. Great spot to stick a campaign.
Also, apropos of nothing, I like how the Confederation's internal borders show you exactly how far the Magistracy and Concordat used to reach.
None of this is to say that the upcoming House Arano book won't (or shouldn't) tweak things. I'm trying to measure things up against the framework I'm extracting from the 1980s books, and that's not going to be totally congruent with HBS' nor CGL's takes on the setting.
The "Reach" as in "the Coalition's reach exceeds their grasp;" better artication of the parasite ds argument; comments on the sb; the jumpships and starting worlds as comstar puppeted traders.
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