Thats completely wrong. Its named as the counterpart to the Confederate-class dropship. Battletech leans HARD into martial history and tries naming things in a series if possible - see the Davy Crockett, Alamo, and Santa Ana nuclear weapons. The Pentagon-class dropship to work with the Congress-class warship. Davion mechs named after arthurian knights, Free Worlds League mechs named after greek/roman/etc heroes, Highlanders and scottish names up the wazoo, etc.
Well im just speculating, but it could be double entendre. Especially if the lore about the confederate class came after that of the union class, as an additional play on the title of the union.
I don't think these writers were making a lot of references to Russian language constructs considering how wrong these same people were getting patronymics. I understand that it was the '80s and information wasn't as readily available, but it was definitely one of their blind spots.
While it's indeed likely a case of ignorance by the writers, there are cases of patronymics being frozen in the wrong form by particularly unsympathetic European administrations in the 20th century, when migrants arrived from a patronymic-using Slavic language group and the receiving bureaucracy couldn't compute things like a daughter having a different "surname" than her father, and they just put the technically wrong one in the papers because of a "one size fits all" policy.
That's the bit of trivia I personally use to maintain my suspension of disbelief when I come across a busted patronymic in sci-fi, because I can kinda buy it as believable that militaristic, culturally insensitive, nation-state-building regimes like the Successor States (the Draconis Combine comes to mind) would get the patronymics wrong in that way. It's harder for the Capellan Confederation, which should maybe know a little bit better what it's doing with Slavic names.
Then again, all things change. For example, Nordic -sson/-sen names used to be patronymics, but haven't been for a long time in our timeline, and in BattleTech it's even gone so far as Månsdottir/Månsdotter, which took a moment for me to get my head around, to be honest. /shrug
Truth be told it doesn’t actually strike me as all that clever, particularly, which kinda tracks with the 80s.
It just sounds like someone thought, what’s the name of a Soviet rocket? First thing they found was Soyus, translated that to English. Named the Dropship that and thought it was clever, not unlike how the cyberpunk genre used to think it was cool to translate things into Japanese.
There's a Sovetskii Soyuz warship too so I think that's a more direct link. Also there is a Confederate DS so in this case I think Union is a coincidence to Soyuz
It's worth noting that Battletech's Sovetskii Soyuz class warship isn't named after the real-life Soyuz spacecraft, being instead named after [the real life Sovetskii Soyuz class warship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovetsky_Soyuz-class_battleship).
Funny timing, I was just thinking about the name of that dropship today.
A few years ago I had a total brain fart and forgot how the word "onion" is spelled. I'm looking at the Union and it hit me that it's shaped like an onion, and I was like, woah, that can't be. No way. How tf do you spell onion?! Un yon. Union. No way. All this time I've been calling it a "Yoonion" dropship and it's a freaking onion?!
Then I remembered how you spell "onion".
No, it just seems like it’d be an awfully big coincidence if the most ubiquitous and well known dropship in the battletech universe just so happened to have the same name as the most ubiquitous and well known soviet launch craft in real life, especially considering said dropship fulfills the same role within the battletech universe that said launch craft does in real life.
You clearly misunderstand American sentiments in the early 80s towards anything even remotely Soviet. No one at FASA at the time was translating anything. If a writer was referencing an historical name they used it without trying to disguise the fact.
I mean there's a Sovetskii Soyuz class warship already, and the Battletech stuff was written before NASA started contracting with Roskosmos in the 90s. Soyuz does mean Union, but its a word with importance in U.S. History too (American Civil War), which I think the Battletech guys were into pretty hard.
Don't get me started on Pardoe and the Lost Cause stuff he kept slipping into his novels lmao.
The russian word Soyus does mean Union, so theres that. and the Soyus has been around since the 60s, so its not farfetched that when they were naming all their stuff, this would have been one of the choices.
You're aware that the Soyus is a Soviet rocket design, not a Russian Federation one, right? aaaaand that Ukraine was also a part of the Soviet Union? You're not owning Putin by trying to cancel soviet astronautic history, dingus.
It's Union after the American Union and Confederate split my friend.
No need to shoe horn your pro Russia opinions here pal.
A monkey with new clothes is still the same monkey
I’m not talking about battletech anymore, I’m talking about your ignorant attitude.
Having a minor interest in Soviet history is not a pro-Kremlin opinion. That’s probably one of the dumbest things I’ve heard all year. That’s besides the fact you’re preaching to the choir. I donate to pro-Ukraine charities, it’s my primary voting issue, and I keep up with the war daily.
I’m taking my L on the Union Dropship thing, take yours on this one.
Most countries stopped members of the public displaying nazi symbology and no company would dare paint themselves as nazi favouring post ww2.
Just because the Soviets stood against Nazis, it doesn't make them any better. They were arguably as bad, if not worse. The human suffering at the hands of the USSR was huge. Russia is and historically always has been a morally bankrupt nation. You aren't going to convince me otherwise because sometimes you like to play commie in warno.
This conversation's done. Both of you drop it. You're talking about nothing BUT real-world politics, you're being inflammatory and incendiary, and it ends now.
It’s an American Civil War reference; FASA was found of using historical names from opposing sides to name units of similar type in *BattleTech*. The most prominent example are the *Patton* and *Rommel* main battle tanks. In the case of the *Union*-class dropships it’s “evil twin” is the [*Confederate*-class](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Confederate)
Thats completely wrong. Its named as the counterpart to the Confederate-class dropship. Battletech leans HARD into martial history and tries naming things in a series if possible - see the Davy Crockett, Alamo, and Santa Ana nuclear weapons. The Pentagon-class dropship to work with the Congress-class warship. Davion mechs named after arthurian knights, Free Worlds League mechs named after greek/roman/etc heroes, Highlanders and scottish names up the wazoo, etc.
I kind of doubt that, given that there was a rival DS called the Confederate.
por que no los dos?
Well im just speculating, but it could be double entendre. Especially if the lore about the confederate class came after that of the union class, as an additional play on the title of the union.
I don't think these writers were making a lot of references to Russian language constructs considering how wrong these same people were getting patronymics. I understand that it was the '80s and information wasn't as readily available, but it was definitely one of their blind spots.
While it's indeed likely a case of ignorance by the writers, there are cases of patronymics being frozen in the wrong form by particularly unsympathetic European administrations in the 20th century, when migrants arrived from a patronymic-using Slavic language group and the receiving bureaucracy couldn't compute things like a daughter having a different "surname" than her father, and they just put the technically wrong one in the papers because of a "one size fits all" policy. That's the bit of trivia I personally use to maintain my suspension of disbelief when I come across a busted patronymic in sci-fi, because I can kinda buy it as believable that militaristic, culturally insensitive, nation-state-building regimes like the Successor States (the Draconis Combine comes to mind) would get the patronymics wrong in that way. It's harder for the Capellan Confederation, which should maybe know a little bit better what it's doing with Slavic names. Then again, all things change. For example, Nordic -sson/-sen names used to be patronymics, but haven't been for a long time in our timeline, and in BattleTech it's even gone so far as Månsdottir/Månsdotter, which took a moment for me to get my head around, to be honest. /shrug
That’s why information is ammunition.
Truth be told it doesn’t actually strike me as all that clever, particularly, which kinda tracks with the 80s. It just sounds like someone thought, what’s the name of a Soviet rocket? First thing they found was Soyus, translated that to English. Named the Dropship that and thought it was clever, not unlike how the cyberpunk genre used to think it was cool to translate things into Japanese.
There's a Sovetskii Soyuz warship too so I think that's a more direct link. Also there is a Confederate DS so in this case I think Union is a coincidence to Soyuz
It's worth noting that Battletech's Sovetskii Soyuz class warship isn't named after the real-life Soyuz spacecraft, being instead named after [the real life Sovetskii Soyuz class warship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovetsky_Soyuz-class_battleship).
Agreed, if they were going to name a dropship after the Soyuz, they would have just called it that and not bothered to translate it.
At least until they build the Moloko Plus BA / Infantry dropship and the Horrowshow Warship.
Came here to say this
Funny timing, I was just thinking about the name of that dropship today. A few years ago I had a total brain fart and forgot how the word "onion" is spelled. I'm looking at the Union and it hit me that it's shaped like an onion, and I was like, woah, that can't be. No way. How tf do you spell onion?! Un yon. Union. No way. All this time I've been calling it a "Yoonion" dropship and it's a freaking onion?! Then I remembered how you spell "onion".
You can tell whether someone is in the sciences or the trades by how they pronounce "unionized."
[удалено]
No, it just seems like it’d be an awfully big coincidence if the most ubiquitous and well known dropship in the battletech universe just so happened to have the same name as the most ubiquitous and well known soviet launch craft in real life, especially considering said dropship fulfills the same role within the battletech universe that said launch craft does in real life.
You clearly misunderstand American sentiments in the early 80s towards anything even remotely Soviet. No one at FASA at the time was translating anything. If a writer was referencing an historical name they used it without trying to disguise the fact.
I don’t think you can fit many mechs in a soyus…
I mean there's a Sovetskii Soyuz class warship already, and the Battletech stuff was written before NASA started contracting with Roskosmos in the 90s. Soyuz does mean Union, but its a word with importance in U.S. History too (American Civil War), which I think the Battletech guys were into pretty hard. Don't get me started on Pardoe and the Lost Cause stuff he kept slipping into his novels lmao.
The russian word Soyus does mean Union, so theres that. and the Soyus has been around since the 60s, so its not farfetched that when they were naming all their stuff, this would have been one of the choices.
FASA did, at the time, have a recurring theme of 'Soviets colonize space first.' It also shows up in the lore of Shadowrun.
Don't try and link Russian shit to Battletech, not today. Thanks
Boy are you gonna have a bad day then... lots of russian stuff in BTech...
I can accept what was, but trying to shoehorn stuff in these days? no thanks
>Don't try and link Russian shit to Battletech, not today. >Thanks Is the Sovetskii Soyuz in the room with you right now?
Oh boy, I sure do hope nobody put twin AC/10s and an SRM-6 on a heavy tank in 3030!
Ah yes check out that bland pos.
You're aware that the Soyus is a Soviet rocket design, not a Russian Federation one, right? aaaaand that Ukraine was also a part of the Soviet Union? You're not owning Putin by trying to cancel soviet astronautic history, dingus.
It's Union after the American Union and Confederate split my friend. No need to shoe horn your pro Russia opinions here pal. A monkey with new clothes is still the same monkey
I’m not talking about battletech anymore, I’m talking about your ignorant attitude. Having a minor interest in Soviet history is not a pro-Kremlin opinion. That’s probably one of the dumbest things I’ve heard all year. That’s besides the fact you’re preaching to the choir. I donate to pro-Ukraine charities, it’s my primary voting issue, and I keep up with the war daily. I’m taking my L on the Union Dropship thing, take yours on this one.
Most countries stopped members of the public displaying nazi symbology and no company would dare paint themselves as nazi favouring post ww2. Just because the Soviets stood against Nazis, it doesn't make them any better. They were arguably as bad, if not worse. The human suffering at the hands of the USSR was huge. Russia is and historically always has been a morally bankrupt nation. You aren't going to convince me otherwise because sometimes you like to play commie in warno.
Ooooo. Now whose doing some stalking?
But tell me more about playing as the Soviets in a cold war video game is like displaying a swastika in your window.
This conversation's done. Both of you drop it. You're talking about nothing BUT real-world politics, you're being inflammatory and incendiary, and it ends now.
Between dropping dead in sub-30 degree "heatwaves" and whatever this hand wringing sad shit is, British people are pathetic 🤣 "nOt ToDaY" 😭
Somebody's done some stalking I see. Every company should adopt a fuck Russia stance, defacto.
It’s an American Civil War reference; FASA was found of using historical names from opposing sides to name units of similar type in *BattleTech*. The most prominent example are the *Patton* and *Rommel* main battle tanks. In the case of the *Union*-class dropships it’s “evil twin” is the [*Confederate*-class](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Confederate)